


Oz finds love in an odd place.

by Blank_logic



Category: Monster Prom (Visual Novel)
Genre: Anxiety Disorder, Canon-Typical Violence, Cursing (Damien's here what do you expect), Drug Use, Fluffy Romance (eventually), Gore, Male pronouns Oz, Multi, Oz has fanon powers, Panic Attacks, a lot of headcanon, canon-typical behaviour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:15:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28798953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blank_logic/pseuds/Blank_logic
Summary: Oz and the colour crew have known each other for years, two years to be exact. Oz decides he's finally ready to open his social circle and get some more friends.
Relationships: Aaravi the Slayer/Valerie Oberlin, Blue | Vicky/Scott Howl, Damien LaVey/Red | Amira, Green | Brian/Liam de Lioncourt, Vera Oberlin/Yellow | Oz
Comments: 17
Kudos: 21





	1. The Colour Crew

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time doing a fic, so I'm not sure how well it'll go, I hope it's good enough to enjoy.  
> Also, my writing schedule is all over the place, so sometimes an update could be uploaded in a day, others it could be a month.  
> This is going to be centered around a certain shadowy boi, but all of the colour crew will be getting dates.

Since the beginning, there has only been four definites in humans and monsters alike, happiness, anger, hunger, and fear. Some may say love is among them, but like all non-primary emotions, it is simply a variant of one or more of the primary emotions, in love’s case, hunger and happiness, it is the hunger to find happiness in others. Some debate this, some accept it full heartedly, while the rest couldn’t care less, but none the less, it was true, since the universe didn’t care about the opinions of mortals.

Fear was the most powerful of the four primary emotions, it could stop people from indulging in the other three, people wouldn’t look for love for happiness since they feared the anger they’d feel towards themselves if they didn’t find love. They wouldn’t go to certain areas for food in fear of something stronger than them being there. They wouldn’t get angry at a bad society in fear they were alone in their anger.

Despite what most people think, fear isn’t bad, it isn’t weakness, it was intelligence saying there was a risk there, now, derivatives of fear, like anxiety or depression, fear that one does not have worth, that is bad, fear didn’t go out of its way to create those emotions, they came naturally, just like phobias, irrational fear, fear warding off people from good things. Fear had control over theirself, but they couldn’t remove the derivatives that had manifested indefinitely without removing fear as well, which would leave the person a reckless fool that would die within hours, days at most.

Fear was also the most powerful since any creature felt it, not just sentient creatures, unlike anger and happiness, which only existed in sentient creatures. You may wonder how animals like wolves don’t feel anger, since they fight and growl, but that isn’t true anger, that is the anger that derives from fear, fear that your food will be stolen, fear that you’ll starve if you don’t kill and hunt, fear you’ll be killed by something stronger.

Fear eventually became so powerful, it formed a physical form, that feasted on fear itself to grow, which was when the embodiment of fear came to be. Over the eons of consuming fear, individual’s personal fears and phobias would be consumed too, and those phobias began to become a part of the embodiment of fear, each of the thousands of phobias in the embodiment of fear’s body represented an individual phobia, even rare fears, like Optophobia, the fear of opening one’s own eyes had a part in the dark matter body of Fear.

But recently Fear had began using it’s form for something other than harvesting fear from mortals, and that was living in monster society, going in and out of society for years, though they now posed as a fearling, to try prevent people from hating him for being the “worst” emotion, might I add, the embodiment of fear, now known as Oz has fallen victim to his own derivative, namely, anxiety.

Oz stood in the kitchen of the house he lived in, which he shared with a djinn with a fiery personality, a frankenstein monster that kept the spark of life going, and a zombie relaxed enough that they don’t need a flashy entrance. Oz was finishing up breakfast for the others and his phobias, so he was watching three frying pans with pancakes, two which had extra sugar, and one which had chili flakes baked in, and one frying pan which was making an omelette with brains and sausage inside. Oz flipped the three pancakes onto their respective plates which already had stacks on them, and the omelette onto a plate, putting a zig-zagged line across the omelette with ketchup. Oz tapped his prepared phone, which would start a group call in the colour crew’s group chat.

The first to arrive would be Vicky, who was already dressed for school and fully energised. “Hey Oz! Can I start eating early?” She gave him puppy eyes as she sat down. Oz let out a telepathic sigh as he poured Vicky some orange juice, putting the rest of the plates on the table, along with the glasses. “ _ No Vicky, we don’t want to be rude to Amira and Brian. _ ” As if on que, the fiery djinn walked in, wearing a sports bra and loose pajama pants, along with fluffy socks. She sat down as Oz poured coke into her glass. “Thanks Oz, let’s hope Brian woke up.” Last to arrive would be Brian, who wore a vest, some shorts and slippers. He sat down wordlessly, just giving Oz a nod as he poured the zombie’s favourite morning time drink, water. Exciting, I know. Oz understood the nod as the tired zombie’s thanks for the breakfast and put a straw into the glass to help the zombie avoid spilling through the tear in his mouth. Oz was the last to sit, pouring himself some milk as well. The morning passed as usual, the group sharing banter and laughing as Brian woke up mostly silently and Oz’s phobias ate from his plate and drank from his glass, occasionally squeaking and making gestures to talk to Oz.

“So, Oz, I heard on the grape vine you’ve been thinking about expanding your social bubble?” Vicky said, having finished her sickeningly sweet pancakes as fast as she could, Oz was a great cook and the colour crew knew that, so they agreed to let him off chores in exchange for breakfast and dinner whenever they weren’t eating out of the house or ordering in. “ _ I’ve never said that, I know that is your way of pushing me to open up and drop my stealth mode. _ ” “But you really shouuuld, you’re so nice, you should share it!” Vicky huffed, crossing his arms. “We’ve still got two years of high school left, Vicky, Oz’ll make more friends when he’s comfortable.” Brian as usual, stood up for Oz. “But he should Brian, we could introduce him to our friends, we’ll be there to watch over him…! How about this, when school’s back, we all introduce him to one of our friends, deal?” Amira looked smug as she made her proposal, as if Brian would surely agree. “Nope, last time I tried introducing him to someone he puddled and wouldn’t leave the house alone with me for a week.”

  
“ _ Actually… I think I could handle meeting one new person at a time, but only one each, and I don’t drop my stealth mode, deal? _ ” All three of the other monsters at the table turned to Oz, staring at him with shocked expressions, Brian having to hold his jaw to make sure it didn’t fall off. “Really? That’s great news Oz!” Vicky squealed in joy, clapping excitedly. Amira and Brian both sat in silent shock, Brian pinching Amira’s arm. “We-we’re not dreaming Brian.”


	2. Back to School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a week of waiting, the day that the colour crew was waiting for was here, the day Oz would meet some new people. Despite being the one that suggested this, Oz had begun dreading it nearly as soon as it came out of his mind but he couldn't retract the offer after seeing how excited Amira and Vicky were.

"C'mooon, let's get there early Oz, I want you to meet Scott already!" Vicky was giggling as she tried dragging Amira and Oz to their front door. " _You do know since we're shadow hopping we don't need to go to the front door, and we agreed I'd be going with Amira before school, you after school and Brian during lunch...!_ " Vicky pouted a bit as she stopped dragging Oz, sighing softly. "Fiiine, can you send us all there now then?" "Sure, you know the drill." Oz waited for Vicky to nod before pushing her back into the door's shadow, doing Brian next, then grabbing Amira and forcefully pulling her into the door's shadow despite her struggling, she wanted to find a way to get into the shadows without Oz making her fall into them. As Amira and Oz popped out of the party tree's shadow, they saw Vicky and Brian's backs walking away quickly. Wait, Brian was fast walking away, why would he be doing- that... Suddenly Oz realised who Amira was introducing him to, it was none other but the spicy red adult, Damien, the prince of the eight circle of hell.

Damien was grinning was he made his way out of the school building towards the party tree, the first day back and his fire djinn friend was planning to start a rave before school even started. He saw the zombie and frankenstein monster Amira usually hung out with walking towards the school, fucking nerds probably didn't get invited to Amira's party. If Amira was kicking out her two closest friends for being noobs, this party was going to be rad. As he began to make out the shape of Amira, he saw she seemed to be talking to someone who he couldn't see, so she was either on the phone or talking to an invisible naked dude, which was possible at this school. As he got closer, he finally saw the guy, he was pitch-black and wearing an ugly yellow cardigan (Damien's words not mine), and Amira seemed to be talking to herself, since the noob didn't have a mouth. "What's up, 'Mira? Who's short, dark and noob?" Ouch, it was a stupid insult but it still hurt Oz, his phobias helped him form his hair into a neat looking style, so he thought it would help him look nice. That's when Oz realised the only person he could think of that would like his hair was Principle Giant Spider, if his charm could be quantified with numbers, he'd be getting a minus two right about now. "This is my friend Oz, the one I asked you to come here to meet?" Damien looked at the shadowy noob, sighing and facepalming. "I thought I was meeting someone cool, if I knew you'd be showing me the yellow power ranger of the noob squad, I wouldn't have come." " _I-I'm sorry, I'll leave so you two ca-_ " "Who the fuck is that talking? No one's allowed in my head but me!" That's when Oz remembered he wasn't meant to talk until Amira explained his telepathy, but he needs to apologise so he doubled down. " _I'm sorry, i-it was me, Oz-_ " "Get out of my head you fucking noob!"

That's when Damien threw a flaming punch at the embodiment of fear, it wouldn't kill him like it would most people, but it would hurt like a bitch and probably raise some questions if he survived having his head blasted off by Damien. He stepped to the side with practiced precision, guiding Damien's fist further away with his hand before tripping the aggressive demon with one foot, causing him to face plant in the dirt. Damien growled and got up. "Fucking noob, just because you can dodge doesn't mean you're cool..." Oz let out a soft sigh through Amira and Damien's mind. "Look I'm sorry for surprising you but please, don't try killing me again." Damien mumbled a few curses under his breath before looking at Amira. "So is he all you wanted to show me? If so, I'm getting Polly to announce a party in her mega group chat thing." Amira groaned. "Fine, we need to get class soon anyways, right Oz?" Oz was about to say they still had a little while before class started, but then he saw the look on Amira's face and he got the message, nodding and following her away towards the school as Damien pulled out his phone.

  
Once inside, Amira groaned again and rubbed her face with both hands, trying to rub the annoyance away. "Look, sorry about that Oz, I knew he'd be a bit mean, he always is to new people but I didn't expect him to try punching you...! If you wanna puddle and not hang out for a week I understand." Oz shook his head, smiling reassuringly, at least, his version of a smile, where the bottom of his eyes curved upward. " _It's fine Amira, he insults did hurt a bit, though they sucked, but nothing actually happened, don't worry about me_." Oz was trying his best to make Amira feel better, but she had no idea of the extent of Oz's power, so she thought he just had a near-death experience, and wasn't having any of his reassurances. "I know you don't want me to worry, which I appreciate, but you don't need to worry about me, I'll get your notes today so you can relax at home, I'm sure Brian and Vicky can wait until tomorrow...!" Oz shook his head again. " _Let's just get to class, I know you of all people won't manage to get all the notes._ " Amira stared at Oz for a few moments before snickering. "Yeah, you're right, I probably wouldn't have been able to."

Oz and Amira headed to their first class, that the full colour crew had together, Scaring Humans Three, one of the mandatory classes that only lasted the first term, every year always had one term of Scaring Humans, since it was essential to monster survival, not because they needed to feed off fear like Oz, but because they would need to scare certain humans that were too much of a threat, and fun is an essential too. The rest of the classes went as normal, and then Oz went to the football field, where he met up with Brian. The pair went under the bleachers and sat near a plant monster who was playing on his phone. "Hey, Kale, we're here. Kale, this is Oz, Oz this is Kale, my friend from middle school." "Hey man, what's up? Wait, sorry if this is insensitive to ask, but can you talk with the whole, no mouth thing?" " _Yes I can, through telepathy as you can probably guess._ " "Oh, that's what Brian meant when he said you'd be the perfect cheating partner if you weren't such a rule abider." "Hey, I thought I said you can't say that." Brian and Kale began chuckling amongst themselves, Oz's giggle echoing through their minds, Kale being a bit startled at first, he wasn't used to something filling his mind yet being quiet at the same time, Kale looking at Brian who was still just chuckling since he was used to the oddity that is Oz.

After a few more moments when the laughing softened, Kale spoke up. "So Oz, what'cha like doing?" " _Oh uhm, I like reading, studying, drawing and I know it's a dead trend but I like Pokéman Go_." Kale grinned at the last hobby Oz mentioned, showing Oz his phone to show a team of mostly rare Pokémans, plus one ultra rare Pokéman. Oz's eye lit up, taking out his phone to show Kale his team of Pokéman's which was two rares, three ultra rares, and one Exclusive, a Pokéman that only appeared in Japan, Hito O Toko (Yes I used google translate to make a fake Japanese name that means Person Man), a manga artist that was actually successful, which was nearly unheard of among Pokémans. Kale looked at Oz in amazement. " _You have Hito O Toko? I thought he only appeared in Japan?" "I've been there before, I can travel long distances quickly... Fearlings can shadow hop._ " Despite not wanting to become the school's taxi service, he decided to tell Kale, he doubted that Kale would be the type to go around gossiping, unlike a certain moth that he heard about from Amira, who had heard it from- That's when he realised, maybe the moth man might be a fiction within the gossip.

The group would get up and start walking around, Oz and Kale chatting while they searched for Pokémans, Brian watching as his most reclusive friend finally started talking to someone outside of his friend group. Brian originally thought to introduce Oz to Liam de Lioncourt, resident vampire hipster, since he and Brian hang out after school a lot after Brian's foot ball training and Liam's rehersals at cafés to take pictures of the food then berate the menu, or at Liam's apartment to watch and berate movies, or go to art exhibitions to view and berate the movies, or the most rare, just chill while doing art at Liam's apartment. The reason Brian decided against that was, Liam likes to berate things, and as abstract as Oz's art is, Oz barely shows Brian because of nerves, so he doubts Liam would be a good target audience, especially if the art wasn't avant gaurde enough for Liam's very specific tastes.

Lunch would soon come to end, and the three parted ways, Kale heading back to his spot under the bleachers, Brian heading to the auditorium, and Oz heading to Mad Scientist Chemistry. Oz as usual sat near the back, being as unnoticeable as possible. He had the desk to himself, and on the desk to his right was two students he vaguely recognised, he thinks their two of the popular students, Vera Oberlin, a fierce business woman who happened to be a gorgon, and Miranda Vanderbilt, a merprincess. As Oz looked at them trying to remember them, he noticed a red dot on the back of Miranda's head. He tracked where it was coming from and saw an anthropomorphic bird with a sniper, Oz was no expert but it looked like a Barret 1.00 caliber, which is what you get when you breed two Berret 0.50 calibers. He sensed the fear from the bird, it wasn't exactly fear, it was anxiety, he recognised it from the time he was eating fear during the human's first world war, he was about to take a major shot. Oz got up and dove over, pushing Miranda down, trying to duck her down out of the sniper's line of sight from the roof windows, but the sniper already shot, and Oz's head had taken Miranda's place, his head exploding dramatically like in the movies, splattering dark matter all over the desk. Miranda screamed as her and Vera were tackled to the ground.. "Air people attack, he's pinning me down!" Vera was now looking up at the window. "He just saved you, you fool! Look, there's a sniper." "Oh that's just my sniper serf." "Are any of your serfs birds?!" Another loud bang would be heard, thankfully Anatidaephobia was watching and Oz could watch through it, pushing Miranda's head down with his hand, which was badly damaged just from the shockwave of the bullet getting close to it. "Wait, it's a bird? No! That's not my sniper serf!"

Now that she knew that the shadow was really saving her moronic princess friend, she pulled out a pistol from her purse and shot the bird repeatedly in the back as it tried to fly away, killing it. She called the police, for once she was going to be able to get rid of a body legally. When she was off the phone, she turned to see Miranda cradling the shadow person she was saved by, sobbing as her crying serf played sad, dramatic music. "Oh my knight, my knight, I finally meet a suitable suitor willing to die for me, and he dies for me!" Vera walked over, crouching beside Miranda and patting head. "If you want, we can get Damien to check hell for him and see if we can bring him back." " _That isn't necessary..._ " Miranda looked around shocked, Vera doing the same with her hand on her pistol. Oz slowly got up, patting the dirt off his cardigan. "Shadow zombie!" Miranda screamed, Vera pointing her gun at Oz and shooting him six times in the chest. Oz whinced each time, yeah he couldn't die but it still hurt like hell, his neck stinging as his head slowly regenerated, his hand healing too. " _I'm not a zombie, and stop reloading the pistol, six bullets hurt enough._ " His head was now back, and he had an obviously pained expression. "Oh my knight, you survived! Now you only need to slay a dragon to become a knight so you can marry me!" She grabbed his hand with both of her's, her eyes glittering like stars, she was pretty, Oz knew that much, but he wasn't sure he wanted to slay a dragon. " _I-I would, but I'm not one for fighting, sorry._ " "Such a gentle soul! We might not be able to marry, but let's be friends, I owe you my life, I won't even make you my serf for touching me without permission!"

Miranda eventually released Oz's hand, which is when Vera approached him, putting her reloaded pistol away, crossing her arms. "Who are you? I don't recognise you, and I have files on every student in school." " _I'm Oz, the fearling...?_ " "I recognise the name, but why don't I recgonise you." " _Cameras don't work on me s-so you probably don't have a picture of me._ " "So, those bullets I put in you, need help getting them out, I can arrange a doctor." " _I just need a knife, then I can do it myself._ " "I don't like having debts, so I'm arranging a doctor for you, sedatives knock you out, right?" " _Only in large doses, more than three elephant's worth._ " "If you want it just to get high afterwards you know you can say so." " _No really, that's how much it takes to knock me out._ " "If you say so, just meet me out the front of school about an hour after, I have a meeting I have to get to first." " _O-okay I guess..._ " Vera looked at him, clearly memorising what he looks like. The rest of Oz's classes passed as usual, though he had six holes in the front of his cardigan and button up shirt, and his hair was messy.

As his last class ended he once again went out to the football field, shadow hopping there to avoid the commotion in the halls, meeting with Vicky. "Heya O- What the hell happened, did Damien attack you?" " _No, I just got into a mess during Mad Scientist Chemistry..._ " "Trying a new mixture? Attaboy! Now then, here comes Scott!" Oz turned to see a large werewolf bounding over quickly, his tail wagging at mach speed behind him as he got to Vicky, picking her up with a tight hug, Oz was surprised he didn't hear any bones cracking from how tight Vicky was being hugged. Scott was excitedly telling Vicky all about his day at a speed only Vicky could decipher. Eventually Scott put Vicky down, turning to Oz. "Are you the friend Vicky told me about, the one with brain talking?" " _Uh- ye-yes? I think so at least, unless Vicky has another telepathic friend..._ " Scott quickly hugged Oz despite Vicky asking him not to earlier, but Scott couldn't help himself, he was in the mood to hug people, and any friend of Vicky's was a friend of Scotts's.

Vicky eventually managed to convince Scott to put down Oz, not before Oz could feel the intense pain of the bullets inside him being moved around though. Oz managed to hide his pain, looking up at Scott. "So, little buddy, what do you like? I really like catching balls, throwing balls, oh oh, football, and uhm, Pokéman Go!" " _I actually play Pokéman Go too._ " Oz and Scott took out their phones, Scott only had one rare, the rest just being uncommon, they were low levelled, but had maxed out happiness and were all healthy. Oz showed Scott his team, Scott was amazed, all of Oz's Pokémans were high levelled, though they had relatively low happiness, but they were pretty healthy. Scott and Oz exchanged tips and good locations in town to play Pokéman Go, making friends quickly because of Pokéman Go, unfortunately, Scott had to join Brian and the Wolfpack on the field for practice.

Oz sat with Vicky for the first hour of practice, since he was waiting to meet Vera for his apparent appointment. " _Oh yeah, could you tell Brian and Amira I'll be home late? Or possibly in the morning._ " "My, already got a play date with Brian or Amira's friend?" " _Actually I have a doctor's appointment, to make sure whatever I made in Mad Scientist Chemistry isn't going to kill me._ " Oz disliked lying to his friends, but he was pretty sure they'd be worried if he told them he was meeting up with Vera of all people. "Alright well, take care." Oz waved and fell backwards into his shadow, laying in the void for a few moments before he shot himself back out in front of the school behind a tree. He walked up to Vera, who was watching the front door. " _Hello? I'm not late am I?_ " Vera looked around before turning to Oz. "How did you get behind me?" " _I can travel through shadows._ " "So someone who is invisible to cameras, and can travel through shadows, ever considered robbery?" " _I-i have, but I stopped after an accident... I nearly killed an innocent._ " "Ah, so your experienced? I might call upon you some time if I need assistance. Also I checked your file to get your number, so don't worry about it."

Oz was a little worried Vera of all people had his phone number, but sighed, he had bigger things to worry about. "Follow me, you're driving by the way, my license is expired so I'm not getting arrested over something stupid like that." " _O-okay, which car is your's?_ " Vera took him to a limousine, which she got into the back of. He got into the front, it wasn't a stretch limousine so he didn't need special training to drive it, so he pulled out of the parking spot and began driving, there was a gps with a pre-arranged location, a warehouse on the industrial part of town. It took about half an hour to reach the warehouse, Vera sighing as she and Oz got out. "Anyone told you that you drive like a snail with motion sickness?" " _Not like that, but yes, my friend Amira does all the time..._ " "Oh, you're friends with Amira, then how come I've never seen you sit with her?" " _Well, when someone doesn't know me, as long as I am in a public area, they just zone me out and don't see me, and they have to know me personally, a picture or glance at me won't let them see me, but if someone sees me in casual clothes in a private area they notice. Though if I have the area's uniform, no one bats an eye._ " "Interesting, you could easily become a mole in a bank, or better yet the military." " _I-i'd prefer not to..._ " "Suit yourself, now come in." Vera led him into the warehouse, leading him to the basement where there was a vault door, the gaurds opening it for Vera. Oz saw an mix of numerous things, in one part of the underground he could see a bar selling drink, food and drugs, he could also see a dance floor, then curtained off he saw a casino, then he saw a door with a sign above it that simply said "Loans." Vera took him to one of the many unmarked doors, taking him into a cluttered doctor's room where a water spirit sat in a lab coat. "Is this the patient you mentioned earlier?" "Yes, Oz, take off your cardigan and shirt." Oz nodded, doing as told, since Oz didn't actually have muscles, his torso was just flat, as if whoever created him forgot to give him minor details. Oz laid on the table, and soon a needle entered both of his arms, and two entered the sides of his neck where normal people's veins would be.

The sedatives took quite a while to kick in enough to knock him out. The doctor swiftly cut the usual pattern into Oz's chest, but when he went to pull the skin back, it just healed itself before he could, so he tried repeatedly, Vera putting on latex gloves, helping the doctor. Eventually they realised Oz doesn't even have skin, it's just the same underneath, so to make sure Oz didn't wake up halfway through, they gave him a double dose of some the spare sedatives they planned to just give him since they thought he was just an addict when he said how much was needed to knock him out. After another half hour, Oz began losing his form, becoming a non-newtonian solid, but unlike liquids of that kind, instead of hardening when force was applied, he only hardened when force wasn't applied, so they could easily reach in and grab the bullets, though the doctor's hand got stuck when Oz resolidified, so he hand to yank it out, the hole left in Oz's chest soon healing. Vera waited half an hour for him to wake up on the operating table, and when he didn't she got one of her henchmen to put his clothes back on him, then carry him back to the limousine that they arrived in. Vera sat watching over the sleeping monster, pulling out her phone to try take a picture, but she couldn't see him through the camera, it just showed the seat he was asleep on. Then she had an idea, she took out Oz's phone, inserted a small device that cracked his code, looking on his phone for pictures of himself, which she found none of, so, she checked his texts, only finding four text chats, the group chat of himself, Brian, Vicky and Amira, then the individual texts. She looked into the chat named "Player Character", the icon being a picture of them at a concert, the four of them back stage, though Oz was invisible in that one too. She looked up through the texts, deciding to send a message.

Shadowboi: Vera here, Oz is with me, he's asleep and I don't know when he'll wake up, he'll be staying the night at my house.

Stitchz: Oh?! Does Oz have a secret girlfriend?!

HotStuff: Why is Oz with you? I thought Vicky said he had a doctor's appointment?

Shadowboi: He did have a doctor appointment, the bullets took longer than expected to get out so we gave him another dose of sedatives and now he isn't waking up.

HotStuff: Bullets?!

Stitchz: So you weren't on a date?

BrainRot: More important things rn Vicky.

Shadowboi: We weren't on a date, he'll probably be awake and in school tomorrow.

Vera put his phone back into his pocket after taking off her device. Vera soon arrived home, her henchmen carrying the unconcious shadow to her room, laying him in her bed. Vera quickly dismissed her henchmen, the pair leaving quickly as Valerie walked into Vera's room. "Date rape? I mean, it _is_ technically feminist for the woman to do it, but yeesh, that's cruel sis." "I'm doing no such thing Valerie, I just gave him too many sedatives in his appointment and I don't know where he lives." "Why bring him here? This patient special to you?" The insinuations in Valerie's voice was obvious. "No Val, I just owe him for saving Miranda's life and I want to remove any idea in his mind I'm indebted to him. "Whatever you say sis, enjoy your boy toy~" Valerie left with a quick wave, snickering as a blushing Vera tried to think of a retort. She eventually sighed, pulled over a chair, sitting down, waiting for him to up to kick him out.


	3. Monstropolis City Bank gets robbed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Oz wakes up, Vera tries making a passing joke, which quickly gets out of hand, since Oz took it seriously

Morning couldn’t arrive soon enough for Vera, who sat at her computer now, having pretty much given up on waiting for Oz to wake up, but she occasionally threw a glance at the shadow. Even though morning didn’t arrive yet like the gorgon hoped, the alternative arrived, the embodiment of fear woke up. Oz groaned and reached up, rubbing his head as he sat up. The bed he was in was extremely comfortable, so he immediately recognised it as someone else’s bed. His white eyes then reformed on his face as he looked around the room, soon spotting a familiar gorgon. “ _ Would I be right to assume this is one of your guest rooms? _ ” “No, this is my room, I decided it would be best to keep you here to watch you so I can talk to you.” “ _ O-oh uhm, sorry for sleeping in your bed, I can’t remember much after I got on the doctor’s bed. _ ” “Don’t worry, I put you there, but don’t expect it to be free, I only agreed to do the surgery. I expect the entirety of Monstropolis bank’s vault.” Vera was attempting to joke with the shadow, but when the shadow’s face dropped and he fell backwards into his shadow, she realised he didn’t figure out it was a joke. “Wait I- Shit.” She then realised she should’ve thought that through, saying someone was in extreme debt was in character for her, so how would the shadow realise she was joking. She needed to text him, oh wait, she had left his phone on charge on her bedside table, shit.

Oz was now in front of the Monstropolis City Bank in the middle of the night, with one difference, he now had a female form. He had shapeshifted his form to appear female, giving himself a bust and long hair, those were the major choices, his form was rather gender-neutral, if not a little feminine already, so he didn’t have to change much. He acted like he was deep in thought in an alley near the bank, which did exactly as he wanted, it attracted over a large female werewolf that just got off work who hadn’t even gotten changed out of her uniform, who also had a backpack, this was perfect, he could just lure her to her house and take her clothes and bag after knocking her out, and that he did, he followed her to her car after being given a handful of cash, which he pocketed. He was shaking by the time they reached the werewolf’s house, who hadn’t noticed the holes in Oz’s clothes, the werewolf was quite tired after all. Oz and the werewolf walked inside and up the stairs, entering the bedroom, where Oz took off his cardigan sheepishly, he hadn’t done this trick in a while and was hoping he could hold this for just a little longer. “ _ Tu-turn around, pl-please… _ ” “Aw, is it your first time? Got it?” The werewolf turned around just before Oz reverted to his male form, but now he grew tentacles, which quickly wrapped around the woman, restraining her, and choking her, she tried screaming but couldn’t get the air. Oz felt the fear coming off her, and realised it has been quite a while since he last ate. He placed a hand on her back, black mist going from her body to his hand. She stopped struggling as Oz ate her fear, and with a delicate motion Oz’s tentacle snapped her neck, Oz could feel himself getting carried away, but he couldn’t help himself, he killed her and threw her lifeless body onto the bed as his mouth opened into a gaping maw. His mouth was seemingly endless, and had many, many sharp teeth, and had a long black tongue that looked similar to his tentacles, it was nearly identical other than the fact it came from his mouth and his tentacles came from his back.

His tentacles undressed her completely, and then lifted her into his mouth. He dropped her in, loud crunching, cracking and squelching coming from the room. Unlike most deaths, when eaten by Oz and other eldritch-like beings, the soul was eaten too, so she would never pass onto an afterlife. Oz felt fully refreshed, and stripped completely, emptying her bag and shoving his clothes in. He took on her general form, and put on her clothes, taking the identification tag off his chest, shoving it into his pocket. He put on the backpack and headed out, getting into the werewolf’s car, driving back to the bank. He soon arrived, he went to the staff entrance, where he was waved in without even needing to do a spot check, his stealth mode making him vaguely familiar since he had the werewolf’s clothes on, so he drove into the underground parking lot. He had previously planned to rob this bank before the accident, he had lied about what the accident actually was, he had no problem killing just one person to do a heist, since you know what they say, you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelette.

He had memerised the map of the bank, and so he quickly made his way to the camera room, entering silently and grabbing the man at the desk’s mouth, covering his mouth and nose, suffocating him until he passed out. Oz quickly taking his id, leaving the room and heading to the vault. He looked at the two guards manning it, then closed the door that lead to the entrance room of the vault. “ _ Could I enter, I need to lodge some cash for one of the bankers _ .” “There shouldn’t be any more lodgings until morning.” “ _ It’s his personal cash, I paid him for some cigars, they’re in the upstairs staff room, you two can leave and get them if you want, just leave two. _ ” “Sure but we’re not opening the vault, idiot…” As the pair left, Oz slipped their ideas off their belts with two small tentacles, then swiped them on the scanners in sync, walking into the vault, not closing the vault all the way as all of his tentacles burst out, grabbing any and all cash they could get, ripping open lockers and chucking cash into the shadows, throwing the cash into the void. It took about five minutes to get all the cash into the void, and Oz began to leave, that’s when sirens began blaring, the body he left in the camera room was found. He began to run out of the bank, being spotted, multiple guards running behind him, they weren’t running after him, they thought he knew where the robber was going. He reached the underground parking lot, which is when the guards realised he was actually the robber. He hopped onto a motorcycle, ripping the hood open and hot-wiring it as the shutters began closing. He planned to drive out to escape the gazes, then drive into the shadows and into the vault to hide where he went and make the police think he was still on the loose, but that’s when Oz felt it, his connection to the void was severed by the police’s anti-spatial magic field.

Oz went full throttle as soon as the bike started up, charging at the shutters as they were now half closed. He leaned as far right as he could, the bike going nearly horizontal as it slid under the shutters, Oz whipping the ground with a tentacle to throw himself back up to being vertical as he drove away from the cop cars that soon arrived on scene. He began driving away as fast as he could, mounting the pavement a few times to avoid cars, soon reaching the highway though he was shot in the back a few times. Oz thought he was home free then, since he was out of the anti-spatial magic field, he just had to find a big enough shadow to vanish into, what he didn’t expect was a police blockade to be right ahead of him. He panicked, he couldn’t launch over them, they’d probably shoot the tires off his bike, so he was panicking quite a bit before he thought of an idea. He swerved, driving for the edge of the highway, using a tentacle to launch over the barrier, then using another to grab the barrier and swing under the highway, falling down into the highway’s shadow just before another anti-spatial magic spell was launched.

Vera had been watching the news on her phone, and saw all of what happened, and was in her bmw series seven which was being driven by Valerie. They were on their way to Vera’s den in the industrial region that Oz knew about, assuming it was where Oz was going to go when he shook off the police. “So how do you know it’s that shadow kid?” “He doesn’t show up on cameras, he told me so himself.” “And you trust him? That’s a first.” “I just doubt he’d be able to lie to me, he can’t even kill an innocent.” Once they arrived, they went down to the door where Oz was being blocked by two guards. Oz had changed into his normal clothes in the void, and had returned to his normal clothes. “Let him in, boys, follow me, Oz, was it?” “ _ Ye-yes, I got the cash you requested. _ ” “Just follow me.” Vera and Valerie led him into the vault which had been emptied slowly back into the banks under Vera’s name. “So, long story short, you aren’t actually in debt to me, I was kidding and you left before I could explain that.” Oz stared at her, his eye widening then blinking a few time. “ _ You-you’re kidding, r-right? _ ” As Vera shook her head, the darkness drained from his face, his dark matter going grey as an odd thing began. Liquid dark matter began leaking from him, but unlike when he melted, his general form stayed the same, his darkness began spreading on the floor, and he shook. He killed someone and robbed the largest bank in Monstropolis because of a bad joke? Quickly, Anthropophobia, Agoraphobia and Aphenphosmphobia popped out of Oz’s shoulder, looking around before all of them pointed at a clipboard and pen, Valerie reacted grabbing them before the dark matter covered it, now covering the entire room, some light still shining through the dark matter covering the light bulb since it was a thin layer. “Wh-what’s going on?” Vera was beginning to shake, both because of fear, and because of the room’s temperature dropping. The three phobias pointed at the pen, Valerie handing them the pen and holding up the clipboard for them. They began writing, though it was barely legible and Oz began slowly moving away. They had written “Panic attack” in their messy handwriting, the three of them having to work together to move the pen properly. Oz had moved to sitting in the corner as Valerie and Vera tried to decipher the near hieroglyphics that the phobias had left for them, Vera finally looking at it correctly. “Panic… at- attack I think it says? What the hell kind of panic attack is this?”

“Not the time to question it, if this stuff stops air from circulating in and out of the room, we need to calm this guy down before we die…!” “O-okay, I’ll deal with this…” Vera shakily walked over, kneeling by Oz. “Are you in pain?” The phobias shook their heads. “Can he speak?” Vera tried putting her hand on his shoulder, but her hand simply sank into him as if his flesh was putty. She pulled her hand back, shaking the black residue off her hand as the phobias shook their heads. “Can he hear me?” They finally nodded. “What should I do?” The phobias began trying to explain, playing a game of charades that was clearer than their handwriting, they were telling her to talk to him. “Will he remember what I say…?” They shook their heads again. Vera sighed and began telling him about what she saw of his police chase, reluctantly saying he was cool, and his escape was smart for something he came up with on the fly, she then began telling him about her friends fondly, telling him he should meet them, Polly Geist, a party loving ghost, Miranda Vanderbilt, the princess he saved, Damien LaVey, the prince of the eight circle of hell, Scott Howl, an idiotic but loveable werewolf, Liam de Lioncourt, a hipster vampire who acted cold to hide he was a loveable dork, Zoe, an eldritch abomination of insanity that loved anime and shipping, and lastly, Calculester Hewlett-Packard, a library computer that had gained sentience. After quite a while, the dark matter that lined the room slowly crept back into Oz as his form regained its darkness, his skin going from grey to black again. “ _ I’m sorry about my phobias, b-but they lied about me not remembering, I know the beginning was a lie though, so don’t worry… I’ll give you the cash as an apology for freaking out. _ ” “Hm, as much as I want it, half of the fault is mine, so I’ll only take half.” Oz was about to protest, then dismissively shook his head and walked over to the other side of the room, shooting half the cash out of the shadows into organised stacks. “You really got everything, you must have if this is just  _ half _ of what you got…” She and Valerie stared at the large stacks of cash.

  
Vera checked her phone before sighing. “Before I forget, here’s your phone… also I could’ve sworn you were shot in the back, why aren’t there any holes?” “ _ I got a disguise, that’s all I’m saying about that. Can I have a knife to get them out, and some privacy? _ ” “Valerie, leave please, Oz, you know the drill, but you’re not getting any sedatives this time.” Valerie left quickly, Oz raising a brow. “ _ What drill? _ ” “Shirt and cardigan off, I’ll get them out since you can’t see your own back.” Oz’s cheeks gained a white tint as he took off his shirt and cardigan, placing them beside himself as he sat on the tabe with his back to Vera. Vera placed Oz’s phone, which she remembered to bring from her house, into the pile of Oz’s clothes. She took out her switchblade, opening it and placing one hand on Oz’s back, the entry points were slightly greyer than the rest of his back, so she knew where to go as she delicately pushed her knife into his back. She was much gentler than Oz expected, she slowed down whenever Oz winced or tensed up, gradually removing all eight bullets. Oz quickly got his shirt and cardigan back on. “You should head home, school’s in two hours.” Oz’s eyes widened as he stuffed his phone into his pocket. “ _ I-i need to make breakfast for the others! _ ” As if he instantly forgot his own troubles, he began worrying about how the others were doing, falling backwards into his shadow.


	4. Inception rip off?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oz finds himself back in Vera's room, back in bed despite getting up earlier that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really tired when I wrote chapter three, and I don't know how to delete chapters, so I'm making it a dream to try fix the pacing.

Oz found himself in a familiar bed, quickly sitting up and checking his watch, it was about four a.m., he could have sworn that he spent at least three hours doing that heist, the sun was starting to come up, so how was he back in Vera's bed? "So you're finally awake again?" Vera was sat on a swiveling chair, one leg crossed over the other. "Look, I was kidding about the debt, I realise it was in character and you panicked but why did you collapse? Do you faint often?"

_"I-i was falling backwards into my shadow, I got the money, remember?"_ Oz was _very_ confused, why didn't Vera remember him getting the cash. Vera looked confused for a moment before putting a hand over her mouth, stifling her ever sadistic giggles, looking at Oz with her usual judgement, though Oz thought there was something else in there, but he wasn't sure, he didn't know Vera that well after all. "Let me straighten things out, I have an anti-spatial magic field on the entire estate to stop robbers, hitmen and stalkers, so when you tried falling into your magic, you hit the ground like a normal person, and you were still weak from the sedatives, so you probably passed out from the shock, so I put you back into the bed, as an apology."

The shadow looked relieved, he hadn't shown one of the most vicious class mates his darkest secret, that's a bonus, and he didn't kill anyone, also a bonus. "That means we're even now, got it? Now, if you want to eat something here, I have sirloin steaks in the fridge, you can try cooking them, but you have to make both, one for me, and if mine isn't up to my standards, you're paying for both." Oz thought for a moment, a couple of phobias popping out, barking at him to take the risk, they didn't want to pass on this chance. Oz nodded. _"Can you lead me to the kitchen?"_

Vera nodded and stood up, taking the shadow to the kitchen, it was pristine and white. There was many ovens and countered, the kitchen looked more like a restaurant's kitchen than a house's, even if said house was a mini-mansion. Oz's eyes lit up, he liked cooking, so this was amazing to him, he looked around like a child in a toy store. He thoroughly washed his hands before heading into the walk-in freezer, finding the two steaks, putting on gloves, grabbing both steaks, carrying them out, placing them on individual chopping boards. Oz hummed, Vera getting confused. "I thought you couldn't talk without telepathy?" Oz realised he was using his real mouth to hum, and shook his head. _"I can't I just have a convincing hum, it's easy enough to learn how to make something quiet in telepathy when you naturally use telepathy."_

Vera looked skeptical, but shrugged it off, only making a mental note to keep track of his abilities, so she could use his as a pawn in the future. He seasoned both steaks quickly and thoroughly, he put his steak on a tray and put it into the oven, and brought her steak back to the fridge, putting it back and leaving it there as he went to the pantry, getting carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, onions and peas. He brought them out, filling a pot with water and putting it onto the heat, dicing the carrots, pouring the carrots, peas and broccoli into the pot, getting another pot, skinning the potatoes and putting the potatoes into the smaller pot, boiling it. He got two pans, oiling them both, dicing the onions and cutting the stems off the cauliflower, caramalising the onions and frying the cauliflower. He got out some gravy mix, preparing it, adding some seasonings, including more salt and black pepper. He checked out the Vera's steak in the freezer, pouring cow blood over the steak.

He drained the water from the potatoes, pouring in milk, vanilla and butter, mashing the potatoes thoroughly to make them like and fluffy, he put on the potatoes onto the the plate, pouring the gravy on, then the diced onions, then the cauliflower. He then drained the peas, carrots and broccoli and put them on, he then got both steaks and put them onto the plates, they plates were identical other than Oz's steak was brown and Vera's was still red. Vera cautiously cut off a bit of the steak, taking a bite. "How did you know I like it extra rare?"

Oz sat down opposite her with his dinner, mixing the potatoes with the gravy and cutting the steak up, then holding his hand over the plate so his phobias could eat up. He didn't need nutrition, but his phobias did like to eat, and it did help ease hunger, so he ate food daily to avoid having to eat fear. _"You and Damien weren't particularly quiet when arguing about how you like your food last year, and it happened at least once every two months, so I'd be more surprised if I didn't know how you liked your steak."_ "What are you talking about exactly?"

_"That time with the culinary flamethrower with the prime rib, the Great Food Fire, where Damien burnt down the school fully just to eat the charred remains of the steak, the Damien statue incident where the nurse had to bully an angel for three weeks to get a tear to revert Damien after you petrified him and-"_ Vera groaned and shook her head as she kept eating. "Fine, fine I get it...! Now, since when did we have a line chef able manage six components just for two dishes in our school?"

_"One of the lunch ladies has eight arms and can do a lot more than two dishes."_ "You know what I meant, Oz, since when did our school have nobodies with talent, I only heard about you yesterday yet you've managed to impress me twice."

_"When was the first time?"_ "When you managed to save Miranda from a threat I didn't even see."

Oz stared at the gorgon, he didn't know much about her but he knew she rarely complimented people, he only asked when he had impressed her so she'd deflect and stop questioning him. "I know you were trying to deflect, I'm not a fool, just tell me about fearlings, I want info about them." _"Well, they're a type of demon, they don't age, they can regenerate endlessly as long as they aren't destroyed completely, they speak telepathically, and can travel in the shadows."_

Oz and Vera would talk as they ate their meals, Vera wouldn't openly admit it for no reason, but Oz's cooking was on par with most restaurants she went to in terms of taste, though the presentation needed some work, which is what she found separated most amatuers from professionals. When Vera was done, Oz got up, having finished first, the phobia's may have smaller mouths, but they had numbers and no dignity. Oz began washing up the dishes along with the pots and pans he used.

Once he was done cleaning, he was brought to the door, Vera saying goodbye to him. When Vera turned around to head back to bed, she saw Valerie standing there with a smug smirk, looking up from her phone. Valerie didn't even need to say anything and Vera's face became red and her previously not unpleasant expression turned into a scowl with the intensity of a thousand stars. "Don't. Say A. Word." She walked past Valerie who had began giggling, heading to bed to get some sleep.

Oz fell into his shadow as soon as he felt his connection to the void return, resting there for a few moments before hopping out of the shadows in his room, putting on a new shirt and cardigan, one without bullet holes in the front. Oz checked his watch and saw it was time to start making the colour crew breakfast, heading down to the kitchen quietly to not wake anyone. Oz made the usual breakfast, pancakes and an omelette for Brian. He called everyone at the usual time, managing to serve the food and pour the drinks before needing to call. The first to arrive was Vicky as usual who tackled Oz with a hug. "You're baaack!" _"I was only gone for a night though?"_

"That doesn't matter, we were worried about you!" Brian was there before Amira, fully dressed, he _actually_ tackled Oz, Vicky managing to dodge the freight train that is Brian. "You idiot, don't vanish and not explain you were shot...!"

_"How do you know that, I told Vicky it was an explosion..."_ "Vera texted us using your phone, check the group chat." Oz did just that as soon as Brian let go of him, his eye widening when he saw what Vera said. He stuffed his phone back into his pocket only to be tackled one last time, now being hugged by Amira. He hugged back, sighing and patting her head, it wasn't scalding hot since she was cooling it, it was just pleasantly warm.


	5. The colour crew gets interrogated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vera isn't satisfied with her info on Oz, after all, if he has managed to fly under her radar for this long, just who could he be?

Over the following week, the colour crew arrived at school the usual way, being sent through the void into the shadow of the party tree. On the Monday after the events with Vera all is well for them, except for Oz, who was the subject of a meeting led by Vera. She assembled a crew of ten people, including herself, that included the seven other popular kids, Valerie, and Aaravi. "So you all may be wondering what I have brought you here for, and put simply, it's because of a fearling named Oz. He is appearantly in the same year as us, and joined Spooky high as a sophomore, that is normal yes, but what's not normal is, that's all the information I've got on him." "Oh yeah, the shadow you had in your bed last night~"

Valerie left it purposely vague to cause an uproar, Zoe being the first to stand. "SHOW ME HIM! THE SHIPS NEED THEIR SAILS!" "Valerie! He was a patient that I needed to protect from organ thieves, he regenerates so he'd be tortured for the rest of his life!"

Liam spoke up next, raising a brow and looking up at Vera. "Since when did you care about _saving_ people from torture, why aren't _you_ harvesting his organs?" Miranda stood before dramatically posing as if admiring his memory. "Because he is brave knight that saved me from an air person attack!" "So he gave you spare pencil because you forgot your's?" Liam was as sarcastic as ever.

Vera sighed before clarifying. "No, he actually did save her, twice, he got his head blown off, then his hand was blown off by a sniper." Damien shrugged. "So he's dead then- wait his hand was blown off _after_ his head? He could move without a head?"

"Appearantly, he then regenerated his head and hand easily. Oh yeah, he also speaks telepathically." Vera added a detail, Damien thinking for a few moments before slamming the table, cracking it. "Fucking yellow noob!"

"You know him, Damien?" Vera leaned forward, raising a brow. "Yeah, Amira, the hot chick with fire hair, introduced us yesterday, then he totally embarrassed me in front of her, he dodged my punch and tripped me!"

"Ooooh, the 'Rip-off yellow ranger that is NOT FUCKING RAD' that you told me that couldn't come to yesterday's party?" Polly giggled at he own impression of Damien. "So if he could take a sniper shot but not Damien's punch maybe he could be be vulnerable to fire? Let's burn down the school and block the exits! I could use the xp so I'll start the fires."

"Wouldn't work, he can shadow hop if he's a fearling, and if we were lighting the school on fire, I'd be the one doing it." Damien sighed, conceding that fire wouldn't work for once. "So what do you want us to do? Can I have a picture to stalk him with?" Zoe giggled excitedly, someone she hadn't heard of at Spooky High, he could be a powerful shinobi in her Naruto!Au fanfic if he evaded Vera for so long.

"I would give you one, but no cameras work on him, and you can't locate him directly, he told me about a stealth mode, you have to have met him to see notice him as long as he's not standing out." Vera shook her head. "Zoe, Aaravi, follow Damien and he'll find the shadow to show you what he looks like, Zoe draw a picture of him, and make it a realistic, non-sexual one, got it? Aaravi, stalk him, find out all his powers, where he likes to go, his weaknesses, fight him if you must. The more info, the more loot you get, if you kill him once and for all, I give you all the loot I have prepared for you." Vera didn't actually want the boy dead, she just knew that he could avoid her with shadow hops and that the slayer couldn't use anti-spatial magic, and she knew Aaravi would get the most info if Aaravi was trying to kill him, and that he likely couldn't be killed by Aaravi's means because of his regeneration and apparent lack of the need for a head

"Liam, you check all of Amira's social media to try find any and all mentions of him, and see if he has any more friends. Scott, what is it?" Scott had his hand up, his tail wagging so quickly it was creating a wind current that knocked some books off the library's bookshelves behind him. "I know him, I know him, my friend Vicky is friends with him!"

Vera nodded and smiled at Scott, the fool just doubled the roster of people about to get interrogated. "Thank you Scott, Miranda, I want at least one of your spy serfs on him, and if you see him, talk to him, make friends with him. Valerie, if he enters your shop, offer reduced prices if he answers your questions. Polly, stay with Miranda, when she meets the guy, hop into his bag or something so you watch him. Meeting disbanded. Leave in groups of three at most to lower suspicion." Vera got up, leaving with Valerie. Next was Damien, Aaravi and Zoe, then Liam and Scott. Calculester left next, disappointed that he was forgotten because he didn't talk over anyone. Last was Miranda and Polly.

Damien was actively searching for Oz, Zoe and Aaravi following from a distance behind. Despite his best efforts, Damien couldn't find Oz anyone, mainly because Oz was actually in class, the one place Damien wouldn't dare to go. Oz was completely oblivious to Vera's plans, and so when he walked into the cafeteria to immediately be confronted by Damien, he was surprised to saw the least, he didn't expect to have made that big of an impression on Damien to let the demon see through his stealth mode, but appearantly he did. Damien began yelling at the embodiment of fear, Amira getting in front of Oz. "Hey, Damien, you know that is my friend right? What the fuck has he done to make you mad, because last I checked _you_ were the one that tried sucker punching him!" "And then he fucking tripped me to make a fool out of me!"

Amira and Damien began yelling back and forth, Amira's hair becoming a large, wild fire that roared nearly as long as her and Damien in their shouting match, Oz watched nervously, trying to telepathically communicate with them, but they were focused for him to enter their minds. Oz planned to just wait for them to get it out of their system but pushed Amira aside as Damien threw a flaming punch, which Oz was hit with, his head dramatically exploding for the second time in this story. He reached up and grabbed Damien's wrist, seeing through Pyrophobia who was on his shoulder. As he grabbed Damien's wrist, his hand began melting but he tightened his grip until he heard and felt a crack, breaking Damien's wrist and then releasing him, Damien pulling his hand back and gripping his wrist in pain. "I'll fuck you up, yellow fucking noob!" Damien then glared at Amira. "I thought you were cool, these noobs are making you weak."

Damien then left, but that was he was really requested to do, just show Zoe and Aaravi who Oz is. Lunch went normally after that for Oz, sitting alone on the table in the corner, watching his friends talking with their other friends quietly, living freely through them. The rest of the day passed pretty normally for Oz with only a sense of being watched, until he was headed for his second last class, when Aaravi leapt out in front of Oz, growling, pointing her flaming sword at him. "I will kill you, you vile beast!" And that's when Oz began running, he didn't have lungs, or muscles, so he didn't need to rest, and he was pretty fast, so he was surprised that the slayer was keeping pace with him, it was probably her boots of plus five agility and the potion of swiftness she chugged before confronting Oz. Oz soon ducked into the library, hiding under a desk before Aaravi burst in yelling. She kept looking for him for a while, yelling the whole time, before she heard Martin the crazy werebear janitor's roar. Oz watched from below the desk as she was cornered by the crazed werebear. Oz cringed at the thought of what he'd do to her, despite his feeding habits, he wasn't a fan of gore, so he charged out from below the desk and tackled her through the window, falling down into the tower's shadow, landing in the void. Aaravi was struggling the whole time, stabbing Oz as they fell, causing him to sigh, he was going to run out of clothes by the end of the week at this rate. Once in the void, Aaravi only struggled hard, huffing and panting, the air in the void was thicker and had more oxygen, if she kept hyperventilating, she'd pass out and possibly die, so he needed her to stop, she had gotten out of his grip so he couldn't pull her out of the void, so he stretched out his air, causing a black mist to come from Aaravi into his palm. He consumed most of her active fear, causing her to calm down enough to let Oz float over to her, taking her wrist and pulling them out into the shadow of the library tower again. He looked at her and released her wrist, sighing. _"Are you okay, slayer?"_ "Sh-shut up you stupid monster!"

After yelling at him, she turned around and began running back to the school as fast as she could, hiding her face from him. Oz sighed as he made his way back inside, shaking his head, casting a mending spell on his shirt and cardigan since he had some spare energy from consuming Aaravi's fear. The day continued normally after that for the entirety of the colour crew.

The following day, Amira insisted on walking after she was texted by Vera to meet her in town. Amira assumed Vera had another job that required her assistance so, wanting money, Amira headed into town on foot. She reached the café Vera requested that they meet at entered, spotting Vera and sitting opposite Vera. "So, I saw in your group chat that you were friends with Oz, very original name by the way, I'm just wondering, who is 'BrainRot'? And why the edgy name?"

"That's Brian Yu, we've had that chat since middle school, and its his DecentArc account handle, yes the art platform." "And am I right in assuming 'Stitchz' is Victoria Schmidt, also order what you want, I'm paying." Vera ordered a slice of red velvet blood cake, and a cup of poison. Amira ordered a flaming brownie and hot chocolate.

"What, is this a date," (No it isn't, Damien's your's.) "Also yeah, that was Vicky, why ya asking Vera, looking to join the power rangers, sorry but we already have the green ranger." "I do not want to join your little group, I just want some info on Oz to make a file about him, and wanted back up informants in case you refused to talk." Vera put away her phone after texting Liam about Brian, telling the hipster to talk to the zombie about Oz.

"Well, I don't know much other than he's a fearling, can shadow hop, has his stealth mode, regenerates quickly, appearantly he has the grip strength needed to break a demon's wrist, learnt that one yesterday. Oh yeah, he can also shapeshift, I've bought him hoodies that were too small for him that he wore for a while before I just got him a bigger one, and he could shrink to match the size of his clothes, he also said he chose to look scrawny so people wouldn't pay attention to him." "Is that all you know?"

"I mean, I know he doesn't need to eat, but his phobias like to eat, he's a great cook, he's good at chess, and he's a pretty good fighter, we've done some sparring before and I can never land any attacks, he just dodges as if he knows exactly what I'm going to do...!" "Hm, thanks for the information, let's have a second breakfast then you can hitch a ride to school with me."

Meanwhile in the auditorium before school starts, Liam and Brian are mending some damaged costumes that Liam needs. "So, Brian, I heard that you're group has been introducing an anti-social person to new people, why didn't you bring him to me, I could have made him cool before everyone else got to him." "Because, the one thing you like more than being cool is ridiculing people who _aren't_ cool by your very niche standards."

"Well tell me about him, I might've liked them." "Heh, you, liking someone? You're just getting info for Vera, right?"

"I-i can like people, like you... But yes, I am trying to get information for her, she seems interested in him, and I'm interested in her influence so I can change things wrong in this world." "Well there isn't much I can tell you, other than," He said pretty much the same things that Amira said, minus the fighting, shapeshifting and strength, instead saying. "He's good at drawing, he sucks at painting, but drawing he can do, oh yeah, and he plays the bass in our band, 'Player Character'."

"Wait, you have a band, why didn't you tell me Brian? If I can talk about your music and no one knows what I am talking about and they doubt me, and I prove I wasn't making it up, do you know how indie and non-mainstream that would make me?!" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just thought you wouldn't like it, we do rock mainly, and all the band members are seen as nerds in our school by pretty much everyone."

Liam was going to continue talking, until Brian's phone notification went off, telling him it was time to go to class. "Cya Liam, talk later?" Liam sighed and nodded. "Yeah, talk later." Vicky, since her only friend in the popular kid group was Scott, and he couldn't manipulate her for information, was let off the hook and wasn't interrogated. At the end of the day, another meeting was called where they would all give their information, looking for conflicts within it, to see if the information they got was legitimate. Nothing conflicted, so Vera simply sighed. "So he's just a fearling? I was expecting more to be honest... How can confirm this information though?"

"If I may, friend Vera, I have a database published by the eight circle's royal advisor. If you would like I could list the attributes of fearlings, to see if there are any conflicts in the data we collected." Everyone looked between each other, Calculester was so polite and quiet everyone forgot about him. "Yes please, Calculester." Vera smirked, she'd done it, she had info on him that would be able to blackmail him, he was lying about what he is, she knew it.

"Fearlings are lesser demons that plentiful in hell on all nine circles, they are commonly used as servants, they come in many shapes and sizes and can be used in many different ways. They do not need to consume food, only requiring magic to be supplied by their creator when damaged. They have regenerative abilities, they can regrow limbs given time, though the rate of regeneration differs. They can communicate telepathically from creation." This was a guide for those creating them, so it didn't mention they could only do so with their creator, and spoke normally with others. "They have dark matter bodies with no internal organs. They can travel between shadows and hide in shadows. They can wield magic and have the ability to gain intelligence equal to or greater than the average demons, if the creator is powerful enough. Few fearlings are powerful enough to go between Hell and the mortal plane, but those made on the mortal plane can remain there indefinitely, though those with powerful creators can travel between the two freely to carry out tasks." "Nothing conflicts huh... I genuinely expected something different." Zoe's eye lit up as she thought, looking back at the picture she drew of Oz, she had an idea, she just needed to double check before she could be sure.


	6. Zoe checks her theory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoe thinks about something other than anime for once, but it has some major implications for Oz. She decides to enact her plan at the end of the week, when Oz heads home earlier because he was hit with a stray curse that locks his spatial magic, and gives him fatigue.

Zoe giggled maniacally in her mind as she followed Oz home, this is the first time he had to walk home, and he was alone, he was going to be alone for at least an hour, Vicky was going to be watching Scott practice, Brian would be practicing and Amira would be partying with Polly for at least two hours. Once Oz reached his house, he entered and closing the door, forgetting to lock it, he wasn't used to feeling tired. Zoe quickly followed him in, making sure to be quiet, sneaking into his room to confront him, that was the plan, until she found him passed out on his bed. She sighed, attempt one, has failed, but at least she knows where he lives now. She sulked out of the room, then out of the house. She was so absorbed in her own stalking, she didn't notice some of her cult stalking her.

Over the next week, Zoe continued stalking Oz, with no chances to confront him about his nature coming up. She gradually got more and more frustrated, she didn't want to confront him in front of everyone, he must be hiding his nature for a reason after all. As the cult of Z'gord continued to watch Zoe get frustrated while watching Brian, Amira and Vicky, they couldn't see Oz because of his stealth mode, they made the assumption that they were her enemy, so they began to research the three, preparing to make their lives worse. They began to destroy the field, gym and auditorium to annoy Brian, classes and the library to annoy Vicky and burnt down the party tree and field, and wrecked the toilets, leaving it in rubble.

On Tuesday, the day they enacted their plan, Oz saw the cult running from the field as some of the final flames died down, the field being pitch black, Amira, Brian and Vicky standing there in shock. _"Here, I'll send you all to your class rooms."_ Oz easily pushed Brian and Vicky into their shadows, Amira being harder to push back, his hands melting when he touched her, but she did go back into the shadow after melting him down to the elbows. Oz began walking towards the cultists running, only to be blown up by a land mine in the ground. It took him a while to regenerate, and then he managed to restore his pants with a spell and phone, but then he wanted to conserve energy in case there were more mines. Oz checked his phone, finding an unmarked number in his contacts.

(xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx: Is this Vera?

(xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx changed their name to: Oz

(xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx changed their name to: Vera

Vera: Yes, what do you need, Oz?

Oz: I need Zoe's number, her cult destroyed the party field and put landmines in it. I need her to get her cult in check.

Vera: Got it, you can pay me back later (xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx

As he was texting Vera, he got an abnormal amount of notifications from his group chat.

Stitchz: What the hell happened to the classroom!? Did something happen to your classrooms???

HotStuff: Yeah, it's fucking wrecked, is this your stupid boyfriend's Prank Masterz thing?

Stitchz: Scott would never do this, and he's not stupid!

BrainRot: Okay, how about this, we head to the auditorium or toilets to hang out since my class is wrecked too.

ShadowBoi: Well the toilets aren't an option, I see them, and they are in rubble too.

HotStuff: Who the fuck did this?! I'll kill them!

Shadowboi: Zoe's cult, I'm texting her now to get her to get them under control.

BrainRot: Okay what the fuck, the auditorium is in ruins too, how did they even do this in one day? It must've been planned.

Shadowboi: I'll get onto Zoe about it, yous should just head home, I'll catch up.

Oz closed the group chat and added Zoe to his list of contacts.

(xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx changed their name to: Oz

Oz changed (xxxx) xxx xxx xxxx's name to: Zoe

Oz: Zoe we need to talk, meet me in the library.

Zoe: I would but the I just saw some of the cult run out of the library and saw flames inside

Oz: You need to get them under control Zoe. One sec I'm checking their blog to see why they did this.

Zoe: They have a blog???

Oz: "Cult 0f Z'g0rd" on Collapsr.

Oz went back to his home screen then checked Collaspr, checking the blog's most recent posts. He got progressively angrier and angrier, Zoe had been stalking them? She looks angry at them, she broke into their house? The cult was targeting his friends and encouraging others to do the same? He _needed_ to talk to Zoe. He fell back into his own shadow, looking through the shadows in the school, soon spotting Zoe and hopping out. Zoe quickly spotted him, waving. "Hey Oz- Why are you shirtless?" _"They put mines in the field, after burning it to ash."_

Zoe looked guilty, looking up at Oz with puppy dog eyes before turning her phone to show the blog. "At-at least they have a cute blog, right?" Oz didn't even need to say anything, crossing his arms and glaring at her. "L-look there barely listen to me, even if I told them to stop they'd just take it as a test of their wills, I-"

_"Don't blame them, they're misguided, if you take the time to explain not everything has a double meaning they might listen. You aren't guiding them anymore so they are falling into what they know made you happy in the past, teach them the new ways, assign a prophet that will explain what they need to do, tell them how to make you happy instead of just telling them what not to do, tell them to make fanfictions, make fanart, make anime song covers, have sleep overs, go to high school, stop wearing their robes and wear normal clothes."_ "B-but they don't listen!"

_"Because you haven't tried connecting with them, to lead a cult, you need to lead them, not just block off the paths their comfortable with...! Offer alternatives, instead of saying no to goat hearts, tell them you'd be happy with fanart! Instead of saying no to chants, tell them you'd like song covers! Instead of the robes and masks, tell them to get a tattoo of their own name in a certain font with a picture of one of your eyes, help them embrace how good they are, and embrace individuality like you did!"_ "You know, you're right, thanks Oz. Oh wait they just updated the... blog... Uhm, shit."

She turned her phone to show Oz, it showed a picture of Oz's friends tied to a wooden pole, fire wood doused in gasoline surrounding them with the caption, "@Z'gord, we're doing your work, these heretics won't annoy you any more! :)". Oz's eyes narrowed as he scanned the background of the picture, tackling Zoe into the void, the pair shooting out of shadows near the scene as a match flew towards the trio. Zoe growled as her eyes began growing, her growl sounding as loud as a thousand lion's roar, yet it sounded like a swarm of locusts. Her form began to grow, filling out the baggy hoodie and stretching the small shorts she wore underneath. Her tentacles whipped towards the cultists as she yelled.

" W̴̡̠̩̓̚͝ḥ̵̭͘y̷̢̥̱̓͛̅ ̸͕̀̾͘ḑ̸̨̠̿̔õ̶͕̭ ̴͍̻͚̂̚y̸̤̣̬͝ŏ̵̜ȗ̴͍̉̈́ͅ ̵͔͒̏f̶̧̖̩̒ọ̶̳̓̓o̷̺͛͗ļ̷̮̺̚͠͠s̸̤͆ ̶͙̼̿͒n̸̯͎̍̓e̵͕̤̐̄v̴̧̟̾e̸͙̥̥͑̚r̸͍̤̱̓̔ ̸̖̙͍̕l̶̨͕̲̉͗͛į̸̭̮̾s̶͈̱̈̚t̷̢͉̏̊̋è̷̢̻n̶̹̾!̸͎̌͆?̷̪̞̤̐͠͝ " Zoe's voice sounded like a thousand individual voices screaming all at the same time, all of them being different pitches, volumes and intensities. The cultists flinched and cowered away from Zoe's tentacles, and just before they reached the cultists, Oz's tentacles grabbed the ends of them, restraining her. "O̸z̷a̷r̷o̶t̵h̷,̵ ̸w̶h̶a̵t̶ ̶a̷r̷e̵ ̶y̵o̷u̸ ̴d̶o̸i̵n̷g̷?̵!̵ ̷T̷h̵e̵y̷ ̶n̵e̴e̵d̶ ̶t̵o̸ ̸b̵e̸ ̶p̷u̸n̶i̶s̶h̶e̵d̷,̵ ̸t̵h̷e̷y̸ ̴k̷i̴l̶l̸e̸d̸ ̴y̷o̶u̶r̶ ̸f̴r̸i̶e̷n̵d̵s̷!̸" Oz shook his head, using one of his arms to gesture to the three of his unharmed friends.

_"No, they tried to, but they didn't, you need to talk this out with your cult."_ "F̷i̶n̴e̷.̴.̴.̸ I'm sorry for getting mad... I'll talk to them, I assume you'll be leaving to explain the whole ordeal to your friends?"

_"Yes I am, now then, I'll be going, goodb-"_ "Not without me you aren't." Vera was stood at the side of the group, watching the entire thing. _"Shit."_

\--------Half an hour later in a café--------

The four of them stared expectantly at Oz, who had gotten a new shirt and cardigan. He was staring down at his hands, fidgeting as Atelophobia, Catagelophobia, Autophobia and Glossophobia tried to comfort him. He was shaking and slowly looked up at the group. "You can take your time Oz..." Vicky smiled as reassuringly as she could, but she was still shaken up from being in the presence of two eldritch beings at the same time, especially since they were the embodiments of fear and insanity. "Yeah, don't worry Oz, we can wait, we want the clear story, take as long as you need." Brian tried to smile, but he couldn't, he was shaking nearly as much as Oz.

_"Since the beginning, there has only been four definites in humans and monsters alike, happiness, anger, hunger, and fear. Some may say love is among them, but like all non-primary emotions, it is simply a variant of one or more of the primary emotions, in love’s case, hunger and happiness, it is the hunger to find happiness in others. Some debate this, some accept it full heartedly, while the rest couldn’t care less, but none the less, it was true, since the universe didn’t care about the opinions of mortals. Fear was the most powerful of the four primary emotions, it could stop people from indulging in the other three, people wouldn’t look for love for happiness since they feared the anger they’d feel towards themselves if they didn’t find love._

_They wouldn’t go to certain areas for food in fear of something stronger than them being there. They wouldn’t get angry at a bad society in fear they were alone in their anger. Despite what most people think, fear isn’t bad, it isn’t weakness, it was intelligence saying there was a risk there, now, derivatives of fear, like anxiety or depression, fear that one does not have worth, that is bad, fear didn’t go out of its way to create those emotions, they came naturally, just like phobias, irrational fear, fear warding off people from good things._

_Fear had control over themself, but they couldn’t remove the derivatives that had manifested indefinitely without removing fear as well, which would leave the person a reckless fool that would die within hours, days at most. Fear was also the most powerful since any creature felt it, not just sentient creatures, unlike anger and happiness, which only existed in sentient creatures. You may wonder how animals like wolves don’t feel anger, since they fight and growl, but that isn’t true anger, that is the anger that derives from fear, fear that your food will be stolen, fear that you’ll starve if you don’t kill and hunt, fear you’ll be killed by something stronger._

_Fear eventually became so powerful, it formed a physical form, that feasted on fear itself to grow, which was when the embodiment of fear came to be. Over the eons of consuming fear, individual’s personal fears and phobias would be consumed too, and those phobias began to become a part of the embodiment of Fear. Since it appeared multiple times in history at major historical events and drained the fear completely, there was bound to be those who weren't made into reckless husks, who instead gained a new fear, Phobophobia, the fear of fear itself, it became so ingrained that it would travel though dna and the soul, giving people who were related to the person with Phobophobia the phobia as well._

_Eventually, the embodiment of fear consumed the fear of someone of Phobophobia, and instead of being made husks, something new came again, a love of fear, inflicting it to others, and the embodiment of Fear. Soon, a cult was started by those that called themselves "Quibus videatur" Latin for "Those Who See", and they gave sacrifices to the embodiment of fear, who they began hailing as Ozaroth. Ozaroth began to remain in the mortal world for longer and longer, he then met Z'gord, a deity of the dark planes. His friend was sealed away into a totem, he talked to them constantly, and consumed their fear. He began growing compassion, he understood Z'gord's fear of never escaping the totem... In their place, he took over Z'gord's cult and made them make sacrifices for Z'gord which he would consume, then he would allow the totem to consume part of him. That's when they both began to understand companionship._

_They learnt that working with someone you have common goals with could be fun, they both began to learn what friendship really was. That's when something changed, the cult began sacrificing it's own members to show loyalty, it disgusted Oz completely, but Z'gord hadn't yet learnt companionship, she hadn't been alone as long, so she hadn't learnt by the contrast. That's why Ozaroth left the cult's worshipping, and his cult transferred to Z'gord, they viewed him as weak. Ozaroth wanted to learn about mortals, so he learnt to shapeshift._

_He remembered fearlings, and took the form of him, and changed his name to Oz, to hide his history. He lived among monsters for years, he did all they did, but yet he was still rejected, so he hid his tentacles and mouth to match other demons. He lived in Hell for years, and he consumed fear there while he helped Lucien and Stan Lavey take over the eight circle, but it turns out consuming demon's fears transferred their worries to him, and he soon understood anxiety and concern. He wanted to understand even more, so he returned to the mortal plane to observe them. He lived alone for years, until he decided to join a high school._

_He passed the entrance exams with flying colours with his basic knowledge he gained gradually from the beginning of time. He was so good he was made into a Sophomore straight away. He met three friends, a zombie, a fire djinn and a frankenstein's monster, he only hung out with the three of them until a week or two ago..."_

"That was more detail than we needed." After taking all that in, Vera was the first one to speak up, she hadn't known Oz that long, so this wasn't as much of a shock for her as it was for the other three, who were all in complete shock. "I think... I think we need some time to take that all in, but, why didn't you tell us sooner Oz?" Amira was the second one to speak up.

_"I was afraid that you wouldn't want to be my friend and that you'd tell everyone."_ "How are you the smarted _and_ dumbest person I know?" Brian chuckled as he pat Oz's back.


	7. Word get's around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite their best efforts, the colour crew let's word split about Oz's true nature the very next day.

Somehow, the school was already restored, probably the "Crazed cultist rampage/Crazed cult destruction" the school paid for. So, since everything was back to normal, it was safe to sit in the field again, which Amira was doing. She sat by the party tree on one of its roots, hugging her knees silently as she stared at the sky. Damien had went out to the field to start a party, but when he saw Amira looking so deep in thought, that idea flew out the window and he rushed to her side. "Hey uh, 'Mira, I know we aren't on the best of terms, but you alright?"

Amira turned her head to look at him, he looked genuinely concerned, a rare expression she'd only seen once before, when he heard a rumour that his dads were getting a divorce, it turned out to be false, no one could break those two apart. Nonetheless, when Damien heard it, he was terrified, and he was so relieved when his dads told him that they weren't that he called Amira while crying. "Y'know something wierd Damien? Despite all our arguing, we've never had a straight up fight," Amira rose to her feet and smirked. "Let's change that!"

She lunged at him, grazing his cheek with her attempt at a sucker punch as he dodged to the right. "I'm not sure about this Amira!" He jumped back as Amira tried to hit him with an axe kick, and then she lunged at him again, just barely missing his jaw with an uppercut as he dodged again, tripping over his feet and thudding against the ground. "Get up! I need to relieve some stress!" After hearing her explanation, he kicked to his feet.

They continued to exchange blows, starting off as clean and orderly, but after a few gut and face punches, the fighting got rougher and more maniacally as fire was added in. Damien charged at Amira, grabbing the collar of her shirt and pinning her to the party tree, raising his fist up to punch her. They looked at each other for a few moments before both quickly leaned forward, pressing their lips together sloppily. Amira wrapped her arms around Damien's neck as he released his shirt, placing his hands on her hips.

After an intense game of tonsil hockey that Damien _completely_ lost, Amira pulled back for air, the both of them panting heavily. "My my, is that a blush, you fierce warrior prince? What happened to you being a spicy red adult?" Damien only blushed more at Amira's comment as she pulled back, snickering. "I-I am a spicy red adult! You, along with everyone else, know it! It's just, I've had plenty of kisses, hell I've fucked dozens of men, women and non-binaries, but none of them had real love in them... that was my first _tender_ kiss..."

Amira put a hand on her mouth, holding in her laugh until she burst out giggling. "That's the most adorable thing I've ever heard! And I've heard of the poems you write!" "Wh-who told you about that!?" Damien growled, trying to hide his embarrassment behind anger.

"You did, ya big doof! You were drunk as fuck when you told me...!" Amira kept laughing, it wasn't actually that funny, but when you're extremely stressed, you laugh a lot more to relieve stress. "F-fine, fine, can I ask you something? Why were you so stressed?"

Amira soon stopped laughing, sighing and sitting back down, thinking for a while. Damien sat beside her, placing his hand on her's. She eventually turned to him, her face a lot more serious. "No one can hear this, not even your dads, got it?" "Wh-what, you get pregnant with some water spirit?"

"No, it's one of Oz's secrets that he kept from us for two years and only told us yesterday... He's, He's an ancient being, the embodiment of-" "Ozaroth, the embodiment of fear? That noob is Ozaroth!?" Damien stood up, grinning widely.

"Wait wait wait, you knew Oz before he- He said he helped your dads in the war of the eight circle! So you met him as a kid?" "Yeah, he was my babysitter until I was like ten, he had a mouth and was bigger too, a lot more muscle, but then again, he can shapeshift, he asked my dads for help posing as a demon when I was only like, three, so they made him a servant in the castle."

"Well hot damn, guess you aren't that mad about him showing you up in front of me?" "No, I am, but I've never beat the fucker in a fight, with his whole regenerating and no fatigue thing, so I'm just glad I will get a chance to fight him again!" Damien cackled maniacally as he coated his hands in fire again, Amira smiling up at him fondly.

Meanwhile, Brian was sat in the auditorium changing rooms in front of a mirror, staring into his own eyes with the lack of intensity only a zombie could stare with. Liam walked up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder, which he didn't respond to, so Liam shook him. "Brian? Brian! Do I need to get you to the nurse's office to reconnect your central nervous system again?" Brian finally snapped out of it, shaking his head. "H-huh nah nah, I'm good, I'm good, don't worry, just mulling things over."

"Last time you said that you were fell asleep for three days because you didn't sleep for two weeks! You're clearly not good!" Liam scolded him, taking the seat beside him and scooting it over. "What's wrong Brian? Want to go and raid some art supplies to let it out on paper?"

Brian thought about that for a while, looking down. He eventually nodded, smiling softly at Liam. "Yeah, let's do that, thanks you hipster dork." "I'm not a dork, you giant." Liam chuckled as he got up, using his set of keys to open the art closet meant to be used for prop design, laying out paper, paint and pencils.

Liam and Brian began to draw and paint together, Brian normally used a lot of vibrant, abstract colours in his art, so when Brian was using only pencil to make a greyscale with mainly darker greys, it surprised Liam. It was abstract in its own way, but then again, it was just a man, with no mouth and tentacles. "Hey, who is that?" Brian jumped a bit, he forgot Liam was there. He sighed and shook his head. "Don't tell anyone, but it's Oz, I found out yesterday he'd been hiding the fact he's the embodiment of fear from our friend group for two years..."

"Hm, I've heard legends of the embodiment of fear, figured it was a myth, they were all abstract even for monsters, so are you sure he's not just lying to seem cool?" "I'm sure, one, he doesn't view it as a cool thing, hence hiding it, and two, he's stronger than Zoe, he seemingly effortlessly stopped her tentacles from killing her cultists in a fit of rage."

"If you're so sure, then I believe you and him, I haven't met him for myself, so I'd need to meet him if I was to disagree." "That's good, thanks for trusting me, and remember, tell _no one_." Liam nodded, patting Brian's back.

Vicky was sat in an abandoned class room, the "Prank Masterz" hideout, she was a semi-member, she supplied the chemicals and some devices for their pranks, and since her and Polly had good chemistry, due to their love of chemistry. Vicky wanted someone to tell about Oz, but she couldn't, she would tell Scott but he'd let it slip, the same for the wolfpack and coach probably wouldn't understand, and would just try recruiting Oz for his eldritch fitness.

As Vicky thought to herself, Polly floated up behind her and hugged her tightly from behind, squeezing her tightly. "What's wrong boo, got a sad dick pic, bad trip?" "It's one of my friends, he'd been hiding something from me for two years-"

"Lemme guess, your favourite bra and or panties? Secret is, don't wear any-" Vicky giggled, most would see that as Polly actually guessing, but Vicky knew she wasn't that shallow when she wasn't high, and from the fact she was speaking less clear than usual, she wasn't high. (Yes Polly sounds more sober when high and or drunk, we don't question the party ghost) "No Polly, just no, heh, he was hiding what he was..."

"Well what is he? Just a cursed human, a normal human? Gasp, he's a chess hater!" Vicky continued giggling, smiling as Polly joked, though her voice became serious quickly. "No, he's great at chess from what I've seen, just... Promise me you won't tell anyone, it's a secret?"

"Of course boo! I swear on my afterlife that I won't tell anyone!" "He's the embodiment of fear, he's existed from the beginning of time. He's older _and_ stronger than Zoe, I've known him for two years and he didn't trust me enough to tell me, I only found out yesterday when he saved Zoe's cult from her, overpowering her and giving her orders."

"Oh wow, that is a lot to take in, no wonder you were in here looking like an abandoned Halloween decoration!" Vicky continued giggling, getting up, phasing through Polly and heading over to one of the desk, opening a box, taking out a chess board and setting up. "I've improved since last time, so get over here and help me distract myself."


	8. The first signs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About a month after Oz first told the colour crew and Vera of his true nature, Unknown to him, half the school has heard rumours of a shadowy eldritch being, including Aaravi the slayer. She chooses to confront the being without knowing it was really it was Oz.

Word had gotten around about Oz, though no one realises it is him except the few people told directly by Oz, Vera, Zoe and the colour crew, which was conveniently the six other most popular monsters in school, Valerie and Kale. On the topic of Valerie, she was currently hanging out with Aaravi in a frozen yogurt show as they waited for Aaravi's sword to be delivered via falcon. "So, V, got any good info, any side quests or dungeons?" "If I tell ya, you have to pay for my froyo too, A."

Aaravi quickly took out her wallet, handing Valerie the price of the frozen yogurt. "You're info is always the best, it's nearly invaluable!" Valerie giggled and took the cash, stuffing it into her pocket. "Fine, so, you've heard those rumours about that new shadow being, the eldritch one that's supposedly stronger than Zoe? Well the rumours are true, and it's Oz, y'know the shadow guy Vera was looking into a while ago?"

"That guy's stronger than Zoe? I really doubt it, but you've never lied to me before, and he _can_ regenerate even after his head was blown off, how'd you get this info?" "From Vera, she told me to never associate with him and lower my prices for him so he would be friendly, but he never visits the shop, well, except for that one time he came to the shop on behalf of Vera to get some blood to pour on her steak."

"So, got any info on his weaknesses? His special moves or powers? Or do you think he's a story driven boss that even if you kill him when it goes to the cutscene if just shows you being beaten so when you kill him later it's more epic and you have a group of allies?" "Your best bet would be to get him into combat, I've only heard what you have from the meeting, oh yeah, and he has tentacles that extend from his back, they could come from elsewhere too, but that's where Vera said they came from when she say them."

"I've got the perfect plan! I just need to call Dahlia! I have a dungeon key I haven't used, I'll invite him to join me and Dahlia on an adventure and offer him some of the loot to watch his moves!" "That's not a halfway plan, A, well done, bravo."

Aaravi thrust her fist into the air, striking a victory pose and also striking the falcon that just flew in, causing it to fall to the ground. Aaravi winced and leaned down, picking up the sword as screen popped up telling her she gained twenty exp. "Oops..."

=====About ten minutes later at lunch in Spooky High=====

Dahlia and Aaravi burst into the cafeteria, spotting Oz and running over. Aaravi dramatically pointed at him, Dahlia matching her pose with a grin. "Monster! I have an offer you can't refuse, come with me on a quest and you'll get some of the loot!" "Yeah, we totally don't have any ulterior motives either!"

Oz stared at the pair, he knew they wouldn't leave him alone until he said yes, and he was being pressured by Polly and Miranda who he was sat with to get the two to leave. He stood up and sighed. _"Sure, where are we headed?"_ "I'll get the coven to read the map and then we'll trek there ourselves!"

_"Can I see the map, I might be able to read it, I do code deciphering classes occasionally."_ "Huh, sure though I doubt you could, you'd have to be a level one hundred ranger to decipher it, or a level twenty five witch to understand it." Aaravi handed Oz the map after opening it.

_"Two things, it was upside down, and it's just in Latin, I thought monster hunters learnt Latin during training?"_ Oz examined the map, closing it and sighing. "Wait you could read it? That means you must be at least level fifty since you aren't a witch, what class are you?"

_"You are the only one who uses that system outside of video games."_ "Nuh-uh, I use it too, Aaravi told me I'm currently a level sixty demon knight! See, I use it too!"

_"Alright well, just get over here and hold on tight."_ Oz's shoulder would regret his wording, Dahlia crushing it in her hands, despite the fact he would quickly regenerate, it still hurt badly. He grabbed their wrists and fell backwards into his own shadow, Dahlia struggling since she hadn't seen this before, but his strength was too much for even her to fight against. He quickly fell into his shadow and then emerged from another shadow half the world away in a rain forest, looking up at the entrance of a large, ancient temple that Aaravi walked up to, taking out the key and unlocking the door.

Oz heard the clicking and grinding from behind the door, and tackled Aaravi down, having to trip Dahlia with a tentacle as the doors flew open, numerous arrows flying out at about shoulder to head height. _"I think this place was made the dwarves, they could've stood casually below that... Need a hand up?"_ Oz got up off of Aaravi, offering her a hand. Blush covered Aaravi's face as she reached up for Oz's hand before she shook her head and smacked his hand away. "N-no, I'm fine."

Aaravi rushed to her feet, grumbling and entering the dungeon, Oz helping up Dahlia, the pair proceeding to follow Aaravi in. They were a bit behind, so when they found Aaravi again, she was repeatedly stabbing a zombie's torso and head who was clearly already re-dead. "Uh, you okay there Aaravi-?" "Huh? Oh uh, yeah..."

Aaravi looked away from the zombie looking at the door in front of them. "I uh, only had one key, and that door is locked, I was mad so I stabbed the zombie... Wait Dahlia don-'t hit it..." It was too late, Dahlia already punched it as hard as she could, but she was simply flung back, crying out in pain. "It's enchanted so it sends all the force back at whoever hits it, here, drink this."

As Aaravi fed Dahlia a healing potion to fix her broken arm, Oz simply pushed open the doors. "How!?" The pair growled, did he set this place up or something? _"I assumed if force didn't work, maybe just pushing it gently might work."_

Aaravi figured it out, he was definitely an arcane rogue, he sensed the trap earlier and broke a magical seal on the doors with ease, he was definitely at _least_ level sixty five, higher than her and Dahlia, since she was also level sixty four. Though if he was as strong as Zoe, maybe he was multiclassing as an eldritch barbarian too.

The dungeon continued mostly uneventfully, there was a few rooms with enemies in them, but they weak, though they did have high numbers and reanimate if Oz took too long to figure out the room's puzzle. All of the monsters were either undead or constructs, meaning the boss was probably some sort of spellcaster. The group soon reached a large throne room that was redecorated from an ornate beautiful one, into one full of corpses and corpse decorations, namely, lots of bone themed décor made of bones. A young looking woman was sat on the throne in revealing armour and robes, so she was going to be a cliché and uninteresting boss that is only liked by people are horny.

She laughed and raised her construct and zombie minions, holding them back for now. "Welcome to my lair, intrepid adventurers! Would y-" Aaravi groaned and raised her sword to point at the lich. "Skiiiiip! Let's just get out of this boring dungeon!"

The lich growled, sending forward her minions, Dahlia crushing the constructs' cores, Oz taking care of the zombies with his tentacles, he knew that they both saw the tentacle he had to use to trip Dahlia earlier so he didn't care anymore, he took off the heads easily, whipping them off and Aaravi was fighting the lich.

Soon all three of them were done with their respective groups, Oz hadn't killed all the zombies but when the lich was stabbed in the chest by Aaravi they all collapsed. "Let's get out of here..." Oz and Dahlia followed Aaravi close behind. Oz turned quickly upon hearing a cackle from him, grabbing Aaravi's sword, throwing it at the lich who shot a bolt of energy at Aaravi. Oz tried to tackle her down, but was hit himself as the bolt sped up, grazing the back of his head, but that was enough to turn him to stone as the sword entered the lich, hitting her core and actually killing her. Aaravi sat up as she got out from under Oz.

She looked down in horror. "H-he's petrified, he-he got petrified trying to save me." She began panting, then hyperventilating, nearly passing out before Dahlia grabbed her shoulders. Dahlia stood up Aaravi, glaring into her widened eyes. "Aaravi, you are the party leader, you can't panic."

"B-but-but he saved me and we can't do anythi-" "We can, Vera petrifies people all the time, the Coven deals with plenty of liches, one of them will know what to do, so let's get your sword, call Valerie to pick us up, then go to Vera to find out how to fix him." Aaravi slowly nodded, calming her breathing like Norah advised her.

"Thanks Dahlia... You're a good dps." Aaravi smiled up at her weakly as Dahlia let go of her. Dahlia went picked up Oz as Aaravi got her sword out of the lich. The pair walked out of the dungeon, which for some reason had signal, probably the modern dungeon deal. After a quick phone call, Valerie got Vera to send a helicopter to pick up the pair and the petrified Oz.

=====Later, in the Oberlin household=====

Dahlia and Aaravi stood by the living room table where Oz was put. "So Vera, do you think could un-petrify Oz?" Valerie interjected before Vera could speak. "What are you talking about, what happened to you plan to kill him? I'm not offering a refund!"

Vera growled at Valerie, not because she was spoken over, but because of something else. "You sold the information I told you to tell no one about!? About Oz of all people?!" "What's wrong Vera? I always sell info about your friends, you usually don't mind."

"One, that's because It's non-important stuff, stuff that I'm okay with you selling. Two, most of my friends haven't gotten their heads blown off to save one of my best friends without even knowing me or that friend!" Valerie pouted and her ears tilted down, it wasn't the first time Vera had yelled at her, but normally it was out of concern because she hadn't been careful or out of annoyance from teasing, but this time was different, Vera was completely pissed off. "I-I'm sorry Vera, I didn't know, I won't do it again."

Vera was about to continue yelling, until she saw Valerie's face and sighed, turning to Aaravi and Dahlia. "Tell me again, how was he petrified?" "A lich shot him with a spell..."

"Normally they'd have to ingest gorgon blood, but in cases were the mouth is closed or the victim has no mouth, a bath of hot water with some gorgon blood will do. Valerie, go run a hot bath. He'll still be weak for at least a day, lich's curses are dangerous, but if you so much as _try_ cause him trouble, I will torture you until death is a release, and then some! Now get out of here, both of you!"

Aaravi and Dahlia quickly left, Vera looking down at Oz and sighing. "That's another debt I have to you, for saving Valerie's friend, and I need to make it up to you that Valerie told those two idiots... I'll make it up to you, also if you are one of the ones that is still conscious while petrified by a lich's curse, you tell no one I'm saying this or I'll find a way to kill you, eldrictch being or not."

When Valerie returned, the pair lifted Oz, carrying him up to the bathroom and laying him in the hot water. Vera took out a knife and cut open her palm, Valerie whining and wincing as she did, quickly getting bandages ready. Vera poured a good bit of her blood into the water, then let Valerie bandage her hand. "Run out and buy him some clothes, he's about my size but make sure to get the men's equivalent." Vera pulled over a stool used to wash one's hair while sitting on, and sat down, crossing her legs as she watched over Oz.

A few hours passed, Valerie had brought in a selection of clothes in a basket, and some towels in another basket. Vera was beginning to get sleepy, before she saw the stone encasing Oz finally crack and fall off, Oz opening his eyes, blinking a few times as he sat up in the large bathtub. _"Wh-where am I?"_ "My bathroom, gorgon blood was needed to unpetrify you so I oh so generously donated some."

Oz's eyes widened as he looked at the bandages on her hand. _"I-i'm so sorry, I should've reacted faster and not gotten hit!"_ Vera giggled into her hand, shaking her head. "You're fine Oz, just get out of the bath, drain it, dry off, get changed and I'll be waiting just outside." She got up and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Oz looked around, before quickly unplugging the bath to drain it, getting out and stripping, starting to dry off, keeping his body genderless so it was easier to dry. He looked through the clothes before putting on some underwear, pants, socks, shoes and a button up shirt. He also put on a belt that came with it. _"U-uhm, what do I do with the wet clothes?"_ Oz opened the door as he as he asked, showing Vera his outfit which was pure black other than the white buttons on the shirt and the silver belt buckle. "Just leave everything there, I'll get them all cleaned up and bring them to school in a bag for you."

Oz stumbled out of the bathroom and put his hand on the wall. "Are you okay? The curse probably hasn't worn off fully yet...!" _"I-i need fear, I need to consume some fear... I haven't eaten in a month..."_

"What? A month? You're an idiot! What did you say you needed, fear? Come with me, I'll take you to somewhere with plenty of fear." Vera rushed over, draping one of Oz's arms over her shoulder and helping him downs the stairs and to the car. She laid him across the backseat and got into the driver's seat, this was the first time she'd done so in quite a while so she felt a bit out of her element.

She quickly drove him to a drug den she runs, she wasn't the safest driver, but Oz was barely maintaining his form, so he wasn't in the state to critique it and panic. He was melting slightly as she helped him inside, he looked pretty normal, many monsters had bizarre withdrawal symptoms. She got the universal key to the building from a monster at the desk and took Oz up to the pent house. She unlocked the door and entered, a few monsters questioned who Oz was, but recognised Vera, the pent house was exclusive to regulars. Vera locked the door, whispering to Oz. "Eat up Oz."

Oz nodded weakly, leaking his darkness spread from his feet to cover the room. He didn't like binge eating, or eating entire people, but both of those were the best way to restore his strength, so he turned Vera away. _"Cover your ears and close your eyes, do not acknowledge anything or let your snakes anything either until I put a hand on your shoulder and speak into your mind."_

Oz let out a portion of his true form, which brought instant terror to everyone in the room, even Vera who heard or saw nothing began shaking just from being in it's presence. She then began hearing screams, followed by what sounded like the death of a star mixed with a snake eating itself as locusts burst out of it. That was followed by gut wrenching squelches, bone chilling snaps and ominously slurping. After what felt like eons of waiting, a hand was placed on Vera's shoulder. _"It's safe now."_ To calm her down, Oz ate a fragment of her fear, enough that she'd recover within an hour and be back to normal.

She turned around and opened her eyes to see the room nearly identical to how it was before, just minus the people inside. _"Thanks for letting me eat them, I assume sales will be down for a while."_ "It-it's fine Oz, but to make up for it, you're driving me home and cooking me dinner, then you're free to go." Oz nodded, giving a faint smile, shadow hopping them back to the car.


	9. Oz gets a cult

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Oz getting the feast from Vera, he had recovered fully and then some, so he was back in school the very next day. Oz did plan to go try find Zoe since this marked the month and a day mark of her and her cult being missing, that was the plan until a group of Zoe's cultists walked up to Oz with some questions.

Oz was doing one last look through the school with Vera, they had bonded last night so they were now friends. She admitted that she was the one that asked her friends and Aaravi to try pry and get information on him and she told Aaravi there was a loot bonus for killing him but that was a hasty decision she quickly regretted. She also admitted she was responsible for Zoe stalking him, which caused the cult of Zoe to attack his friends. Lastly, she thanked him for saving Valerie's friend before making him bake desert as payment for the tender bonding experience, nothing comes for free with Vera after all.

Oz sighed as he rubbed his temples, racking his brain for any information he had gotten since Zoe left that could indicate where she went, he just hoped she didn't get mad at herself for what happened and return to the dark planes to protect him their friends. Oz had lost touch with his surroundings, Vera having to raise her voice a bit to snap him out of it. "Oz! You has some people who want to talk to you." Oz finally looked up, and saw a group of Zoe's cultists, they didn't seem to have changed visually though.

_"Where were yous and Zoe for the last month? Please tell me she's okay and still on this plane."_ "Do not worry, lord Oz, we were taken under the great Zoe's wing to watch all of her favourite animes, learn to do fanart and fanfics and study the history of our cult, that was the smallest portion but it was there. We ask you to allow us to worship you, great Oz, we want to restore your cult. Mainly because we aren't comfortable drawing half naked people we know kissing, and that's the only tribute she's accepting." The leader of the group pleaded.

_"Uhm, sure, but I haven't ran a cult in a while, so could we talk it slow? No tributes straight away kinda thing."_ Vera's eyes lit up as she smirked, and then grinned. "I'll be your prophet Oz, I'll help you set up your cult. Just trust me and you'll have a cult in no time!"

_"Well, fine, but I'm coming with you while you set it up, I will be making the major decisions, my cult after all."_ Vera's grin lessened as she rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak before OZ spoke again. _"As long as they don't have to pay to into the cult, you can use them as henchmen for a reduced price."_ Vera was suddenly alright with him coming along.

"Time to head to the mall, and you cultists, choose one man and one woman, you do let women in, _right?_ " Vera glared at the leader, who began nodding quickly. "A three of the ten of us are women." He gestured over the two youngest members, a man and woman. Vera lead the pair and Oz outside, and soon after Vera made a call, a stretch limousine pulled up, which Oz opened for them, gesturing them all in.

Vera was the first in, sitting near the front, the cultists entering and sitting near the back. Oz sat opposite of Vera, who was already on her phone, looking through the online catalogues of the stores at the mall. Oz and the cultists sat in silence before Vera turned her phone to Oz. "Thoughts on the possible uniforms?" Oz examined the outfit she assembled, the store had an interactive mannequin that you could dress up to plan outfits on. It had a tight colourful rock shirt, spiked wrist bands, ripped jeans, large boots and ski masks. _"You've never made a religious cult, have you?"_

Vera growled before shoving her phone into his hands. "Fine, you do it!" Oz began tapping away, handing her phone back. The mannequin now had a button up black shirt with a yellow tie, along with fingerless black gloves, black pants with a subtle black belt with a silver buckle, black socks, black formal shoes and lastly a lower half only mask that looked like one of Zoe's mask cut in half. Vera stared at it for a few moments angrily before grumbling. "How come you can make outfits for other people but not yourself?"

Soon, the limousine stopped, Oz was the first out and he held the door for the rest of the group, who filed out neatly. Vera took Oz in, before they went to the help desk, showing them the outfit they had prepared online. They were brought to each individual item, which they collected ten of, each cult member remembering the size of the rest from when they all went to get their robes. Thankfully the outfit Oz made was gender neutral, since all of the items could be gotten in either the men's or women's sections, so they didn't need to make a second separate uniform.

The cultists were sent to head back to the school to hand out the uniforms to the other members after changing in the changing rooms of the store. Meanwhile, Oz and Vera were now sat in a café, Oz was nervous, yeah they shared dinner a few times, but that was his cooking- He realised that was more like a date than this, but that was in Vera's house- Okay it definitely seemed like a date in retrospect, both times, but at least those were in private, so only Valerie thought they were dating, but if any of Vera's or his friends saw them, it would definitely look like a da- He had to jinx it. Suddenly, Brian and Liam looked over from their table. "Oh hey you two, didn't expect either of you to get the irony of coming to couples' café on a date." "It's not a date Liam, your's looks more like a date since there is only one plate between you two."

"Because I don't eat food." "And because we are on a date." Brian chuckled as Liam suddenly became red, looking away from Brian, and away from the snickering Vera. "Of course you like the jock, Liam."

Liam grumbled his responses as Brian and Oz both waved at each other. "So Oz, why are you here with Vera, is it actually a date, or just a casual hang out?" _"We're here to discuss what I should do to help my cultists re-establish the cult."_

"Oh cool, how's that going?" "We haven't started so, go back to your date you love sick undeads." Brian gave a thumbs up, starting to eat the chocolate cake once he saw Liam upload his picture of it online. Oz and Vera ordered their drinks and food before starting to discuss the new rules of Oz's cult, rule one being no drawing fanart or writing fanfics about real people.

Vera and Oz spent the rest of the day hanging around in the mall, forgetting completely about school, Vera bought herself some more designer outfits, and got Oz some clothes too, not that high quality, but it wasn't just the same pants, cardigan and shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's probably only going to be two or three more chapters, I have an idea for another fic I want to try, I didn't expect this fic to run this long anyways, just glad that people seem to be enjoying it


	10. Oz's first party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two weeks after Oz's cult began reforming, they helped Vera rob Monstropolis bank and so, Vera is hosting a party for all of her friends and neglecting her henchmen as usual, though they did get paid at the very least.

"Where's that damn shadow, he was meant to arrive ten minutes ago...!" Vera growled as she and her friends, and Oz's friends, sat in the living room of Vera's party house. After another five minutes her eyes widened before she shook her head, sighing heavily. "What's wrong Vera?" Scott asked, concern lacing his voice.

She chuckled and continued shaking her head, though now a bit more fondly than before, as if whatever she was thinking made sense in a funny way. "I said the party was at my house, I forgot that he doesn't know that I meant this one, he's never been before. I'll be right back." Vera got up off the couch, heading out into the back yard by the pool, sitting on one of the chairs as she rang him.

_"H̸e̸l̵l̷o̸,̸ ̴w̸h̵a̵t̶'̵s̷ ̵u̴p̷ ̸V̸e̷r̸a̸?̷"_ Since Oz wasn't close enough to do direct telepathy, he had to talk with his real mouth, thankfully he could keep his mouth covered with his skin, it muffled it the slightest bit, but it already sounded like static and white noise, so the muffling wouldn't make it that much harder to understand. "I'm sorry Oz, you've probably been waiting outside my house right? I meant my party house, I'll text you the coordinates, you can shadow hop here."

Vera did just that, texting him the location of her house on Joojle maps, to which he sent a thumbs up back, hanging up and falling backwards into his shadow. He popped back up right beside the pool. He had to toss his bag and phone to Vera quickly as he fell in. The walls of the house were glass, so everyone saw Oz fall into the pool, laughing and heading out back to meet him. "We were going to wait until after some games to hop in, dork!" Amira was laughing her ass off at the sight of the soggy Oz getting out of the pool.

_"Yeah yeah, could you dry me off, Amira, without burning my clothes?"_ After calming herself and then bursting out laughing again at his exasperated expression a few times, she did as asked, drying off him and his clothes. "We could take this chance to start the pool party now and play games after, I want to boost my friendship stats before we play Risk Two so I can make a party!" Aaravi asked, smirking.

"Sure, we may as well, Amira, I assume you'll be the dj since I assume you won't be getting in?" "Sure, I'll get in a moon tan too." The sun was just setting over the horizon, so it wasn't dark just yet, but it wasn't exactly the brightest point of the day. Everyone went back inside, all of them taking turns in the bedrooms and bathrooms to change, while Oz simply puddled out of his usual clothes then reformed into his swimsuit which he left on the ground after taking it out of his bag.

Soon the pool was full of playing teenagers, Miranda's serfs working hard for her and Oz, not because she and Oz were dating, much to Miranda's displeasure, but because over the last seven weeks since he met Miranda he had continually saved her time and time again (Outside of the main story of course), and last week he finally accepted to go to the Merkingdom, since he didn't have to hide the fact he could survive without air, where he was knighted by the Merking, made a noble and given many titles and gifts for saving the princess repeatedly.

Polly was giving Amira advice on what songs to pick before cannon balling into the pool beside where Damien was waterboarding one of Miranda's expendable serfs, much to Miranda's pleasure. Scott was standing up in the deep end of the pool, Vicky on his back. He kept turning around trying to find her. Aaravi and Valerie were throwing a floatie back a forth, while splashing the other to make them miss. Brian and Liam were at the edge of the pool, Brian having his lower half in the pool while Liam sat near the edge on his phone. Calculester was doing a sudoku puzzle, sitting beside Amira, she was using him as a dj booth. Zoe was drawing the entire scene with maniac glee, mumbling about how there was going to be at least one swim suit slip, an underwater kiss and one confession, since all good pool party episodes had them.

Lastly was Oz sitting at the bottom of the pool, generally avoiding the chaos above him and Vera was sitting on the pool's side, looking in at him, sighing and lowering herself into the water, diving in, grabbing his arm and dragging him up. "If you're going to go to a party, you do know you have to party, right?" _"Th-that's the thing, I don't know how, this is my first time at a party."_

Vera sighed, thinking, she was more used to formal get togethers, so she got what he meant, so she had an idea. "We can play a game, with everyone, it's called shark attack, the shark normally has to stay under the water as long as he can, when he comes to get air, he can't move and has to keep his eyes shut but when underwater they can open their eyes, and when someone is caught for three seconds, done by grabbing the ankle, they normally become the shark, but, we can change the rules so you stay the shark and the winner is the last on caught." _"Th-that sounds fun, but what about Polly? She can fly through the water."_

"And you can shapeshift, figure something out." Vera got everyone else's attention, suggesting the game to which everyone except Calculester, Amira and Liam agreed to play. The first round was one of the slowest, the guys were out easily, but then Oz was too nervous to grab any of the girls for quite a while until Polly threatened to flash him to make things more interesting. The second round was the fastest, he shot out his tentacles, catching them all instantly. The next few rounds were more balanced as rules were tweaked constantly, ending with Oz being blindfolded and not allowed to use his phobias to see, or his tentacles, so he had to rely on hearing.

In the last round, after Brian and Vicky got out of the pool snickering, everyone got out, leaving Oz confused underwater for half an hour before he rose to the surface and took off the blindfold, the exasperated look returning as everyone burst out laughing, including Oz's phobias. After a little while of everyone laughing, Oz joined in, chuckling at himself for not realising it sooner. _"Okay, okay, you got me, who's idea was it?"_ Vicky raised her hand, laughing, Oz grabbed her ankle with a tentacle and dragged her in, holding her above the water, tickling her with the help of many phobias.

"Why didn't you put your hand up?" Liam raised a brow, looking up at him. "I knew Oz was plotting something, soooo, I decided to just, do nothing to see if it was good or bad, it turns out its neutral." Oz soon released Vicky before they both got out of the pool. Everyone that was in the pool grouped out, staring at Amira who didn't notice straight away. When she did notice, she groaned and rolled her eyes, getting out and drying them off. Every headed inside, getting changed in various rooms.

When everyone was changed back into their usual clothes, they reassembled in the living room. Zoe sat in the corner, disappointed that her anime tropes didn't come true, though Polly nearly flashed Oz, so that was entertaining. Soon, Everyone was drinking except for Calculester, though Oz was barely drinking, not even a fraction needed to get him tipsy. The group soon began playing Mega Twister, where there was a much larger mat, pretty much just nine mats put together in a square, Polly was the designated judge to watch everyone to make sure they didn't slip off. Of course Oz and Zoe were the last two, since they could use their tentacles to hold themselves, and they had better ranges of mobility than everyone else, though Polly wasn't far behind, she can do the Reverse Romanian Wilkinson after all. Eventually, the use of tentacles was outlawed, and Oz and Zoe were soon in a tight spot. Oz was finally pretty much trapped, he needed to get a colour behind Zoe's arm.

He reached out, time began to slow in everyone's mind as Oz slowly fell, that is, until he extended his arm and gave himself and extra elbow to be able to reach around Zoe's arm. Zoe was so shocked she just dropped, Oz retracting his arms, smiling. "That's not fair! He cheated, cheated I tell you!" Zoe wasn't the most competitive, but she wasn't going to let him away with a cheap victory. "Well, it wasn't _against_ the rules." Vera smirked, it wasn't so much she wanted Oz to win, more so enjoying the distraught look on Zoe's face that her master plan was ruined, at least, that's what she told herself.

They played a few more games of Mega Twister, then some games of Risk, which Aaravi and Vera ended up winning together mostly in their alliance, then it was charades, which Brian and Liam won, since they had so many inside references. Next was Monopoly, Oz, Vera and Valerie had formed an alliance, which easily won, then it was the game Scotland Yard, a game were four players were police that had to track a criminal that only showed up every few turns, and if the criminal evaded for around twenty eight turns, they got away and won. The most successful cops were Vicky, Aaravi, Polly and Scott, Scott because he somehow tracked the criminal's scent, despite the criminal piece not being on the board most of the time and the most successful criminals were Amira and Damien.

At that point, people began splitting off and doing their own thing, mostly playing smaller board games or dancing to Polly's music selection. Valerie, Aaravi, Vera and Oz were playing the Pokémans trading card game, Oz shared a team deck with Vera, and Aaravi shared a team deck with Valerie. Their fifth match was interrupted with a squeal and thud, the four of them turning to see Scott licking Vicky's face repeatedly. Liam turned to them, seeing the four's confusion. "Scott asked Vicky out and she said yes."

_"Oh, I was expecting Vicky to ask him out first, she's been subtly trying to get with him as long as I've known her... Then again she might've been a bit too subtle, it is Scott after all."_ Polly cheered, putting on Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader, everyone getting up to dance to celebrate the two getting together. After about half a minute Vera noticed Oz awkwardly sitting to the side, going over to him. "Okay I know this is your first party, but you've surely danced alone at home, right?"

Oz meekly shook, looking down as he rubbed his arm. _"Not in this era..."_ Vera grabbed his wrist, dragging him out onto the dance floor, holding his wrist as she began dancing. _"Wha-what are you doing? I-i look stupid...!"_ "Then dance and look natural, we'll judge you even more if you don't than if you do."

Oz eventually began dancing, it was a more jumpy and modern version of a tap dance he learnt years ago. The jumpy energy wasn't excitement, it was nerves, but he looked natural, so it worked enough to make Vera let go of his wrist. After a few mortifying minutes of dancing, Oz finally caved in, quickly and stiffly leaving the living room, hiding in the hallway, staring to melt, shaking as his phobias began popping up, trying to encourage him and tell him that no one was judging him.

He knew they were right, but he couldn't help but continue doubting himself, sitting in the darkest corner of the hallway, beginning to fade into them. Soon, he was dragged out of his thoughts by a hand being placed on his shoulder. Vera was crouched in front of him. "Come on, parties aren't for lurking in shadows, at least stand up."

With unusually soft guidance from Vera, he was soon on his feet, Vera standing in front of him. "That wasn't so hard right? Want to go back to the party?" Oz shook his head, looking down. He wasn't used to this side of Vera, he assumed she was at the stage of being upset where they are unusually calm, of course she would be, he's ruined the party. First, he shows up ten minutes late, chucking his stuff at her before falling into her pool. Next, she makes an entire game up just to include him and then he made the games of Mega Twister go on way too long. He then dragged her away from her friends to play the stupid Pokémans game and then he sucked at dancing which made her look stupid for dragging him out.

And now, he was sulking in the hallway, dragging her away from her party just to be a good host, why wouldn't she hate him? "Have I ever told you how grateful I am that you've saved my best friend time and time again? I said nothing the first time because I assumed you had ulterior motives, like wanting to get me or Miranda indebted to you so we'd do some perverted thing for you, or go on a date with you. Then you were fully ready to risk your life to fulfill a fake debt to me just because I took care of you for what, half a day? Then, even after I got my friends to pry and annoy you, you saved my sister's best friend while they were actively plotting to kill you."

"You're a great person Oz, I know you probably don't believe me, I've asked your friends about you, I've heard you have more anxiety than you do time, and so you find it hard to relax, so I tried helping you set up your cult, to take the stress off you, but then you did all the work. So I used your cult to rob a bank, to fund this party, so you could relax... I'm sorry it's been so stressful for you, I understand if you want to go home, I won't be mad." Vera looked away, blushing. Suddenly the roles were being reversed, Vera was the one being meek and timid, while Oz suddenly had to reassure her.

He thought for a while before just hugging her, his body was normally temperature neutral or cold, but he was using some heat magic Amira thought him to heat himself up to make the hug more comforting. Vera's first reflex was to push away, but once she put his hands on his to push him away and felt the warmth coming from him, she slowly hugged him back, resting her chin on his shoulder, smiling. A few phobias popped up out of Oz's head, who began hugging Vera's snakes. Oz wasn't sure what he was feeling, his dark matter heart, which was his only organ and kept his form consistent, was beating almost painfully hard, and Oz was shaking slightly with nerves, half expecting a dagger or fangs to enter him at any moment, but at the same time he felt content, safe, like he never wanted this moment to end.

Vera wasn't used to this feeling, being able to completely relax in someone's arms, closing her eyes as she rested against him. They were about the same height so she rested her head on his shoulder, she didn't have her body pressed against him, but they were embracing, so she soaked up the warmth. She then felt another heat rise within her, filling her chest and cheeks as her heart beat hard in her chest, thumping louder than a drum in her ears. She pulled her head up off his shoulder, opening her eyes to face him, his eyes being the only thing she could see in the dark.

She leaned forward, closing her eyes slowly. She didn't move all the way across, but she felt Oz's lips against her's after only a few moments. Oz had shapeshifted his mouth to make it smaller and more human, and gave himself lips, putting them against Vera's. The inside of his mouth was still filled with many sharp rows of shifting teeth that could easily cut off Vera's tongue, so when he felt her tongue against his lips, he shook his head slightly, to which her tongue retreated, her lips closed again as they kissed softly a few more times, holding each other close.

Eventually, Vera pulled back, pulling out of the hug, clearing her throat and looking away while blushing. "A-ahem. Uhm, thanks, for that... We should discuss how we feel, later, after the party, and hopefully we can come to a... pleasant arrangement?" Oz nodded drearily, he still wasn't sure what was going on, all he knew was he was happy, and couldn't take his eyes off of Vera. _"Yeah uh, that sounds nice, want to go back to the other's?"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I made a satisfying enough first kiss, this is my first time doing any sort of romantic writing, so sorry if it isn't great. The next chapter will probably be the last unless I come back to this later, but I plan to do more fanfics with everyone's favourite embodiment of fear.


	11. A romantic evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A month after they first kissed, Oz and Vera on going on yet another date, this one to mark the beginning of winter. Valerie was back at the Oberlin family home for winter, so Oz was now staying over, and this was going to be his first night alone with Vera at her house, so he was as nervous as he was excited.

Some people debate whether love is a primary emotion or not, it _can_ be described as simply the hunger for happiness in someone else, Oz believed it was that up until recently, but now he knew better. Sure, love isn't a primary emotion, but it is a semi-primary emotion, why isn't it a primary emotion? It doesn't create a new emotion in it's absence, the absence of fear is insanity, the absence of happiness is sadness, the absence of anger is calmness and the absence of hunger is contentedness. Some argue love does have an opposite, hatred, but that is simply another semi-primary emotion, the much weaker one. The absence of love isn't hatred, just because you don't love someone doesn't mean you hate them, and vice versa with hatred but Oz now knew love was much stronger. Oz didn't realise it until recently, but he hated himself, for what he did, harvesting fear from mortals, and refused himself happiness as a punishment, but Vera's love, it brought him happiness, it cut through his self-hatred easily, like a hot knife through butter, he began learning the one key to mortals he never seemed grasped for years, since he never experienced it, love. Now, his love brought him to the sidewalk in front of Vera's house, where he'd be staying for the next two weeks.

Oz morphed through the gate to the house like Vera told him too, making sure his hoodie that Vera got him didn't get dirty in the process, and that his bags weren't squished, using a tentacle to lift them over the game. He had one bag of supplies just for tonight, and one to for his general upkeep since he'd be staying for the two week break. He went up to the door, knocking softly. He heard a soft but growing sound of someone disorganised heading to the door. Vera opened the door, wearing a floral blouse, along with light blue jeans, which she had her blouse partly tucked into. "Sorry I'm a bit of a mess, I just got done preparing everything, Valerie left later than expected." _"Have I ever had the confidence to complain about anything Vera? And there is nothing to complain about, you look just as good as you normally do, just more casual. I know it's hypocritical for me to say this, but you need to let yourself relax more."_

"Pot calling the kettle black." _"I know, I know, hence why I said I know I was being hypocritical, can I come in?"_ Vera smirked, thinking for a moment. "Nope~" She closed the door, tucking her blouse properly and tieing her snakes into a pony tail before opening the door again with a smile. "Of course you can Oz."

He shook as if he was chuckling, but nothing came out, at least nothing loud enough to be heard. He stepped in as Vera stepped aside to let him in. Vera closed the door, walking him into the kitchen. "So, you told me you'd teach me how to make at least one snack that actually needs to be cooked, what are we making first." Oz thought to himself as he took his backpack off, placing it on the counter, taking out multiple smaller bags and containers. _"Let's make the brownies first, then the cupcakes, then the cookies, and lastly, the popcorn, dip for the chips and the chips."_

"Yeesh, bring the kitchen sink too?" (Narrator note, not sure if this phrase is world wide but it is used where I'm from, "Brought everything but the kitchen sink", it means you brought a lot of stuff, so a common joke where I'm from when someone's bag is completely packed is to ask what Vera asked) _"No, I'm not a plumber after all."_ Oz replied with equal sarcasm, he wasn't that confident in public, but he relaxed a lot more when he was alone with Vera. "Something you can't do for once, a miracle."

Oz and Vera continued the playful back and forth as he got out his notes, he didn't need them, but he brought them for Vera's sake. He separated all the ingredients based off of what they were needed for, getting out the numerous mixing bowls, gesturing Vera over. They both rolled up their sleeves and Oz began walking Vera through his notes. He let her do the interesting work, taking the more boring tasks, like mixing. He refused to use the electronic mixers, they were too messy, loud and inefficient, he had been baking for years, so compared to his skilled arms, they were woefully inefficient.

The brownie batter had chocolate chips mixed in. Vera put them into the oven while Oz quickly cleaned the mixing bowls, though he just got new ones to make the cupcakes. He let her make the cupcake batters herself, one was chocolate, one was vanilla, and one was plain which was going to have strawberry jaw funneled into it, while he prepared the jam and the three difference frostings. Vera took out the brownies as she put in the cupcakes, leaving the brownies to chill off to the side as Oz cleaned the mixing bowls again. Next was the cookies, all of which were triple chocolate chip, a chocolate batter with normal, milk, and dark chocolate chips mixed in. Once the cupcakes were done, they were taken out and put aside as the cookies were put in. Lastly, Vera melted butter in a bowl over a flame burner, to which it was taken off, being poured into a pot where corn cornels were poured in with salt. A lid was quickly put over the pot as the corn started popping rapidly. Soon, the pot was taken off the heat, and the lid was taken off, the pot being full of popcorn. Vera took out the cookies, leaving them out to chill, none of the baked goods were going to be eaten tonight, they planned to eat them across the weeks, and they just wanted them prepared to be enjoyed over the week.

Next were the dips, the first one was simple, it was a normal queso dip, it was the usual cheese, with green onions, tomatoes, cayenne powder and jalapenos mixed in, while the other was a more mild tomato dip with minimal spice, with mainly bell peppers and normal onions being added. Next got out a pan, cutting up a a good amount of tortillas, dipping all the slices in oil and spice mix Oz prepared before frying them in the pan, throwing them onto the plate. They poured the popcorn into a few bowls, put the tortilla chips on a plate and put the dips into two small bowls. They went to the living room, putting the chips, dips and popcorn onto the coffee table. Oz snuck back to his bag as Vera checked the mini fridge by the couch to make sure it was full, and came back with two large mugs full of hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows topping the cream on top. Oz carefully put down the two mugs, Vera smiling at him. "And why didn't you let me help you make these too?" She put on a fake stern voice as Oz grabbed the tv remote for the big flat screen tv, opening Netflix, looking through the stand up comedies. _"Secret recipe, I haven't spent the last century perfecting it to give it out so easily."_

"It can't be _that_ good that you can't show me." Vera, despite having been dating him for a month, had never tasted his snacks, he always only made proper dinners whenever they ate together, or they ate out of the house at a bar or restaurant, so she doubted how good they were since she only heard from the colour crew whenever she was at their house, or from Damien when he recalled the time Oz was his babysitter. After one sip, those doubts vanished, the cream, marshmallows and hot chocolate were all made by him, and they tasted so good she doubted she could go back to normal hot chocolate. "You bastard, you have ruined normal hot chocolate for me for the rest of my life. You are now indebted to me, my one ever-so-generous rule is that you must make me hot chocolate on all of our dates, got it?"

_"Of course, my ever-gracious girlfriend."_ Oz chuckled, his more human mouth returning, this time he managed to smooth out the smaller details since he practiced every night at the very least, and he managed to make his teeth stop shifting, and restricted it to only two rows that were much smaller, so it wasn't _too_ strange, and he managed to shrink his tongue to a normal size, rather than the size of an arm, but that was all he managed to do over the month, his tongue was still extremely rough, and his teeth were still razor sharp. "How's my voice sound today?" It was no longer over lapping itself, and the static was much less noticeable, and it sounded much more appropriate to his mood, rather than each voice sounding different in the overlapping mess that was his previous voice.

"Much better, you've made a lot of progress, and I mean that." Vera sat down, taking the laptop and finally deciding on a Ricky Gervais special as Oz sat down beside her. Vera leaned on him for a moment before putting the laptop and mug down, tasting one of the tortilla chips. "Fuck off, not these too?"

_"When you've had since the food was invented to practice making it, and access to the best chefs in the eighth circle and their kitchen, you make good food."_ Oz reverted to his telepathy, it was easier than keeping his voice in check and it was clearer. Vera kept grumbling softly as she began eating the chips, pulling a blanket over their legs. The first stand up special was soon done, and with it, the mugs of hot chocolate, the queso dip and half the tortilla chips. Oz then picked Russel Howard's special, sitting closer to Vera. By the time that special was over, the tortilla chips were done along with the tomato dip, and they were holding hands.

The next two shows they watched were both from Bo Burnham. They were then done the popcorn, and were snuggled up at one side of the couch. They swapped to Youtube, putting on a playlist of all of Markiplier's Fnaf videos. _"Y'know, the humans aren't great at much, but they're pretty good at comedy and entertainment, which is surprising since their lives are more endangered on a daily basis and they know it... Then again, laughter is a reaction to fear for humans, it calms them, so maybe that fear is what drives them to be so good at making others laugh?"_ "Do you always get philosophical before bed?" The pair had gotten up and unfolded the fold up bed part of the couch.

They laid back down, Vera laying on Oz mostly, resting her head on his chest, laying on her stomach, ignoring the tv. _"Not usually, but normally I am much more exhausted, you've been keeping me pretty relaxed, so I'm not too tired."_ "Neither am I... want to get up and play a board game?" She pulled herself up, kissing his cheek before sitting up.

_"Sure, that sounds good, what did you have in mind?"_ "Scrabble and chess alternating?" Oz nodded, getting up and walking to the kitchen and dining room with her after they both grabbed another drink from the mini fridge. Vera stared into the kitchen at the brownies longingly, Oz chuckling, walking out, cutting the brownies, putting them on a plate, putting the cookies on another plate. He funneled the strawberry jam into the plain cupcakes, and frosted them all, putting them on another plate, carrying them all in on his tentacles.

_"I guess we can make a start on our baked goods, start off the winter break right, right?"_ Vera nodded, quickly staring on one brownie as Oz set up the scrabble, smiling at her. Vera wasn't fully used to seeing him with a mouth just yet, but it was cute, so she didn't mind. They began to play deeper into the night, it was about midnight when they began.

There were many trips back and forth from the fridge getting chilled soft drinks, neither of them liked drinking that much, so when they were alone they rarely drank, other than white wines or a sweet liquor for two or three of their dinner dates. Oz was the first to notice the sun peeking over the horizon. _"It's morning already...? Jeez..."_ Vera smirked, moving her queen forward. "Checkmate... And it is... Means we've been playing board games for about eight hours at least... It didn't feel it."

Oz nodded in agreement, looking at the empty plates, empty cupcake wrappers, and empty cans. _"We went through a lot... Want to clean up and go to bed?"_ Vera nodded, yawning as she finally felt the night of staying up catch up as the sugar crash kicked in. _"You go ahead and go to bed, I'll clean up."_ Vera wanted to protest but as she yawned again, she reluctantly agreed, heading back to the living room to fall onto the bed.

She was instead greeted by a box in wrapping. She slowly unwrapped the box, opening it and taking out the journal. She opened it to the first page, reading the long message Oz wrote about all her charms, her quirks along with how much and why Oz loves her. As she flicked through the pages, glancing at each one, each had either a similar page long message, a drawing of her, or a picture of the two of them together that he had gotten on previous dates sneakily. He had filled all one hundred and fifty six pages of the journal within the month they met. Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around Vera from behind.

_"Happy birthday Vera."_ She laughed softly in a mix of awe, amazement and shock. "How'd you know it was my birthday today?" _"I learnt from you and had Zoe, her cult and mine help me compile a few files."_ Vera began laughing as one or two happy tears rolled down her cheeks. Normally it wouldn't been _this_ big of a deal, but she was sleep deprived.

The pair soon got into bed, both quickly drifting off to sleep as they held the other close, Vera listening to Oz's quite, gentle heart beat.

====== Three days later ======

Vera had ran ahead to prepare with her family, so when Oz walked up to Vera's family home with his backpack, what he wasn't expecting to see was Aaravi knocking on the Oberlin's door. _"O-oh hey Aaravi, come to drop off a gift for Valerie?"_ Aaravi jumped, turning to Oz. "O-oh not exactly, I'm uhm, I'm here for dinner with Val, we uh, started dating three days ago. I'm nervous since we jsut started dating and I'm meeting her father."

_"Ye-yeah, I'm nervous too, first time at this house and first time meeting Vera's father too."_ Soon, Valerie opened the door, jumping out and hugging Aaravi, who struggled a bit at first, whispering to Valerie about Oz standing there. Valerie casually looked over at him. "Oh hey, come on in." She slowly unwrapped her arms, walking back in. "Sis! Your boyfriend's here~!" Aaravi and Oz entered nervously together.

Vera poked out from the kitchen. "Hey Oz, come in here and help me finish off the mashed potatoes." Oz rushed too the kitchen, seeing Vera in a baggy Christmas jumper that matched Valerie's and her father's, and loose, comfortable looking sweatpants. Oz and Vera's father didn't talk much as they both cooked, so he was still nervous, trying to make a good impression.

Soon, Felix, Vera and Valerie's father, brought out the dinner after sending Oz and Vera out of the kitchen. Vera and Oz sat on one side of the table, while Valerie and Aaravi sat on the other and Felix sat at the top of the table. Felix smiled warmly. "I'm so happy to meet you both, I've heard good things, Oz and Aaravi, right? Welcome to the family." The large werecat spoke a bit slowly, Valerie clearly got her relaxed nature from him. _"Thank you for having me."_ "Thank you for having me." Both Oz and Aaravi said at pretty much the same time, it was clear they were both nervous.

"Calm down you two, I'm not mad at yous or anything, I'm grateful you two make my daughters happy, tell me about yourselves, please." Aaravi was the first, she mentioned she was a former monster hunter, she now works as an adventurer and bounty hunter after going through therapy to help her with her denial and blame about what happened to her family and how she blamed monsters for it. "Well your quite brave to be honest with me, and yourself about your past, and for going to therapy, and you Oz?"

Oz hesitated at first before starting to tell his story, even cut down it took a while to explain the intricacies that was his past and what he was. "Oh wow, I heard out it from Vera, but you are the real deal, huh?" Valerie leaned back in her chair, Oz nodding meekly. _"I-i try my best to only eat fear from humans and not enough to kill them."_ "Well, that's good, most humans aren't bad after all."

The five of them continued talking over dinner, then after Oz and Felix cleaned up, they began to play board games. Aaravi was the most competitive, but was thankfully toning it down, a lot. After a few hours, they all went into the living room, and exchanged gifts. Oz got Felix a cologne made for sensitive fur and noses, at the recommendation of Vera. He got Valerie a leather jacket and a few badges. Lastly, he got Vera a new phone, it was one that hadn't even been released out. "H-how did you get this!?" "It was being produced in the Merkingdom, so I asked the king to get me one, in exchange for pretty much all the money he had given me for saving Miranda. It's already personalised, mostly, I couldn't get everything without hacking your phone."

"Well now my gift seems underwhelming..." She handed over her box, looking dejected. Oz quickly opened it, taking out a beautiful golden watch. He smiled widely, he didn't have his mouth showing so it was just his eyes curving upwards. He quickly took off his old golden watch, carefully putting it in the box in place of the new one. He put on the watch, turning to Vera. _"Well, I still love it, thanks Vera."_

Vera and Oz leaned forward, sharing a quick kiss before pulling back. Once the gift exchange was done, the pair went back to Vera's house, Oz driving them both home, parking in the drive way. They went to bed, cuddling close to each other as they watched Youtube on Vera's new phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that brings my first ever fanfic to an end, please, give your opinions below, I'd love to hear them, praise or criticism, though I ask if you give a critic, if you could suggest a remedy, makes it a bit easier to take. Thanks for the positive response so far! I'll be starting my next fanfic soon, might even start writing it directly after this actually- I have nothing better to do.


End file.
